Experiment investigation on semi-active seismic response control of tall building with podium structure

The experiments on semi-active seismic response control of tall building with podium structure were carried out in The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Sep. 2002. The tall building was constructed as a slender 12-storey building model whereas the podium structure was built as a relatively stiff 3-storey building model. An MR damper together with a current controller manufactured by the Lord Corporation, USA, was used to link the 3-storey building to the 12-storey building. The dSPACE real-time simulator system is used in the experiment. The dynamic characteristics of the two buildings without any connection and with a rigid connection were first identified. The two building models without any connection and with a rigid connection were then tested under the scaled El Centro 1940 N-S ground motion. Finally, the two building models connected by the MR damper manipulated by a semi-active logic control algorithm were tested under the specified ground motion. The experimental results show that the MR damper with the semi-active logic control algorithm could significantly mitigate the seismic whipping effect and reduce the seismic responses of both the tall building and the podium structure.