Optimization Design of Damping Devices for a Super-Tall Building Using Computational Platform

Abstract In the study, the effects of damping devices on damping ratio increase and wind-load reduction were investigated based on the computational platform, which is one of the parametric modeling methods. The computational platform helps the designers or engineers to evaluate the efficacy of the numerous alternative structural systems for irregular Super-Tall building, which is crucial in determining the capacity and the number of the supplemental damping devices for adding the required damping ratios to the building. The inherent damping ratio was estimated based on the related domestic and foreign researches conducted by using real wind-load records. Two types of damping devices were considered: One is inter-story installation type passive control devices and the other is mass type active control devices. The supplemental damping ratio due to the damping devices was calculated by means of equivalent static analysis using an equation suggested by FEMA. The optimal design of the damping devices was conducted by using the computational platform. The structural element quantity reduction effect resulting from the installation of the damping devices could be simply assessed by proposing a wind-load reduction factor, and the effectiveness of the proposed method was verified by a numerical example of a 455m high-rise building. The comparison between roof displacement and the story shear forces by the nonlinear time history analysis and the proposed method indicated that the proposed method could simply but approximately estimate the effects of the supplemental damping devices on the roof displacement and the member force reduction.