Variable property devices for structural control

Base isolation reduces the base shear, inter-story drift, and absolute accelerations of structures at the expense of potentially large deflections of the isolators. By incorporating variable damping and stiffness devices into the isolation system, the isolator deformations can be reduced with out significantly increasing the base shear. In this paper, the relative importance of the variable damping and variable stiffness mechanisms to this control system is analyzed.

Duke Scholars

Author Henri P. Gavin Civil and Environmental Engineering