Full-Scale Shake Table Tests of a Reinforced Concrete Building Equipped with a Novel Servo-Hydraulic Active Mass Damper

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of an experimental program involving shake table testing of two full-scale reinforced concrete frame buildings. These tests were conducted to investigate the effectiveness and reliability of a newly proposed servo-hydraulic Active Mass Damper (AMD) that can be designed to enhance the target seismic performance of a building at multiple earthquake intensity levels. The two nominally identical case-study buildings were intentionally designed to exhibit a “soft story” mechanism at the first level when subject to ground shaking of sufficient intensity, but one was equipped with the newly proposed AMD, installed on the roof. The two specimens were then subject to the same loading protocol consisting of a ground shaking sequence of varying intensity, with the seismic input consisting of a selected natural ground motion.The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed AMD is extremely effective at enhancing building seismic performance. Specifically, the AMD provided peak displacement reductions in the order of 70% and was shown capable of absorbing more than 60% of the total input energy. As a consequence, the un-retrofitted structure suffered nontrivial structural and non-structural damage, while the AMD-retrofitted building remained virtually undamaged at all shaking intensities considered.

KEYWORDS:

• Active mass damper
• full-scale shake table
• reinforced-concrete buildings
• enhancing seismic performance
• tuned-mass damper

Acknowledgments

This experimental program described in this paper is part of a research project led and funded by ISAAC Antisismica and 360 Capital Partners, with the aim of promoting the use of Active Mass Dampers to enhance the seismic performance of new and existing buildings. The multidisciplinary experimental program required expertise in seismic engineering and mechatronic engineering, and has been possible thanks to the scientific advice of experts in the field such as Gian Michele Calvi and universities and associations such as the Politecnico di Milano and the EUCENTRE foundation.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).