Damper placement for seismic control of super-long-span suspension bridges based on the first-order optimization method

To ensure the anti-earthquake performances of super-long-span suspension bridges, effective devices should be employed to control the seismic response of key sections. In this paper, four kinds of assessment functions for seismic response control effect are formulated based on the mechanism of seismic response control with dampers and the seismic response characteristics of long-span suspension bridges. A new optimal placement method of dampers using penalty function and first-order optimization theory is then proposed. Runyang suspension bridge (RSB) with a main span of 1490 m is then taken as an example. After seismic response time-history analyses on RSB using different placements of dampers, the analysis results are optimized by employing the optimal placement method and the optimal placements of dampers with the four assessment functions are then achieved respectively. Comparison of the four optimal control effects show that different assessment functions can lead to different optimal placements when the number of dampers is certain, but all placements of dampers can reduce the seismic response of RSB significantly. The selection of assessment functions and damper optimal placement should be determined by the structural characteristics and by what is considered in the structures. Results also show that the first-order optimization is an effective method on determining the optimal placement of dampers.