Seismic Control Effect for Nonlinear Benchmark Building Using Passive or Semi-Active Damper

We study the control effect for a 20-story benchmark building and apply passive or semi-active control devices to the building. First, the viscous damping wall is selected as a passive control device which consists of two outer plates and one inner plate, facing each other with a small gap filled with viscous fluid. The damping force depends on the interstory velocity, temperature and the shearing area. Next, the variable oil damper is selected as a semi-active control device which can produce the control forces by little electrical power. We propose a damper model in which the damping coefficient changes according to both the response of the damper and control forces based on an LQG feedback and feedforward control theory. It is demonstrated from the results of a series of simulations that the both passive device and semi-active device can effectively reduce the response of the structure in various earthquake motions.