Optimal design of hybrid control system for new and old neighboring buildings

Abstract

New configuration of control system for optimal seismic performance of the new and old neighboring buildings is proposed in this study. For practical implementation, the proposed approach takes into account the limitations on installation of additional control system in the old existing building. The active control devices to exert large control forces are only allowed in the new building and the damper links between two buildings are limited to be minimum. In order to deal with simultaneous optimization of the device distribution and the corresponding capacities, the genetic algorithm is employed. Illustrative example for a system of 12-story new and 9-story old buildings is taken into account where typical active control system and newly-proposed control system are optimally designed for comparison purpose. The comparative results obtained from numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed system can be a performance-efficient and cost-effective solution in reducing the contiguous buildings' responses under the seismic excitations. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.