Effect of PGV/PGA ratio on seismic-induced vibrations of structures equipped with parallel tuned mass dampers considering SSI

Tuned mass damper is one of the effective methods used to reduce dynamic loads in structures under the influence of environmental loads such as earthquakes, wind, and traffic loads. In the current TMD design, the fixed base approach is mostly considered when determining the dynamic properties of the structure. However, in cases where the structure-soil interaction (SSI) is important, the frequency values of the structure are significantly different from those obtained for the fixed foundation approach. This situation negatively affects the performance of TMD operating in a narrow frequency range. Therefore, using a control system consisting of multiple TMDs connected in parallel (MTMD) instead of a single TMD may be a promising solution for the control of structural vibrations. In this study, a parameter design and efficiency assessment of MTMD for reducing the seismic responses of the structure considering SSI is studied. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is adopted to obtain the optimum parameters (i.e., damping ratio, frequency ratio, and frequency bandwidth) of the MTMD. The effects of different support conditions, number of TMD units, and peak ground velocity (PGV) / peak ground acceleration (PGA) ratio on the performance of MTMD are also evaluated comprehensively. The dynamic responses of the structure are obtained under 42 near -fault ground motions from the time history analysis. The results reveal that ground motions with low PGV/PGA ratio can significantly increase the responses of the structure for both with and without SSI cases. Moreover, it has been observed that optimized TMDs placed parallel to the top floor of the structure are effective in reducing the seismic responses of a ten-story building considering SSI.