Hybrid Vibration Control of Hospital Buildings against Earthquake Excitations Using Unbonded Fiber-Reinforced Elastomeric Isolator and Tuned Mass Damper

Lifeline structures such as hospital buildings need to be specifically designed such that they experience reduced vibrations when subjected to earthquake excitations because it will be difficult to vacate hospital buildings under the event of any earthquake. Therefore, to ensure operational condition under earthquake excitations in an existing hospital building, the present study utilizes flexible unbonded fiber-reinforced elastomeric isolators (UFREIs) for its seismic isolation. The UFREI-based isolation system is designed to restrict the structural acceleration within the tolerable limits for the building inhabitants even during earthquake hazards. However, the use of such flexible isolators results in excessively large bearing displacements, which either may not be practical and/or pose several serviceability issues. Therefore, tuned mass damper (TMD) is attached to the base floor of the UFREI-isolated hospital building to reduce the large isolator displacements. Properties of the hybrid vibration control system are designed according to the site-specific scenario in New Delhi, India. Further, nonlinear time-history analyses of the UFREI-isolated hospital building with the TMD are carried out, and responses are compared with its uncontrolled response. Results show that the peak bearing displacement response of the UFREI-isolated hospital building is reduced by 9% to 27%, due to the addition of the TMD. Importantly, the required design displacement of the UFREI-based isolation system is decreased by 27%, without compromising the effectiveness of base isolation. In fact, the performance of the hybrid vibration control system is superior to the base isolation system alone.

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