Reliability of semi-active seismic isolation under near-fault earthquakes

Abstract

Structural control can be used for protecting buildings and its vibration-sensitive contents from earthquakes. Seismic isolation is a passive control system that lowers effective earthquake forces by utilizing flexible bearings. However, supplemental damping in the isolation system may become necessary to reduce large isolator displacements under near-fault earthquakes. Semi-active dampers are preferred over passive dampers because of their capacity in minimizing possible amplifications in floor accelerations due to increased damping. Semi-active dampers are also preferred over the active ones because of their higher stability and lower power consumption. On the other hand, seismic performance of semi-active isolation may vary due to variations in the mechanical properties of semi-active devices and/or seismic isolators. Such uncertainties alongside the uncertainties associated with ground motion parameters should be taken into consideration to develop a realistic picture of the behavior of seismically isolated buildings equipped with semi-active control devices. The objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of semi-active isolation in protecting vibration-sensitive equipment and integrity of a structure by considering the aforementioned uncertainties and present the reliability of semi-active seismic isolation under near-fault earthquakes. For this purpose, this paper introduces a method that uses synthetically generated near-fault earthquakes and Monte-Carlo Simulations. This method is used to determine the reliability of a 3-story and a 9-story benchmark buildings with semi-active isolation systems under near-fault earthquakes of various magnitudes and varying fault distances. The results are presented in the forms of comparative plots of probability of failure and reliability. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.