Fluid viscous dampers locations in reinforced-concrete core wall buildings

Conventionally, a flexural plastic hinge is assigned and detailed at the core wall base and coupling beams ends to control seismic responses. This strategy is based on allowing damage to main structural components. To avoid damage to main structural components, an alternative strategy using energy dissipating devices, such as fluid viscous dampers (FVDs), is currently being studied and implemented. In this study, the effect of FVD locations on a 40-storey, high-rise, reinforced-concrete core wall case study building has been studied in detail using non-linear response history analysis for seven spectrally matched ground motions. FVDs were installed at strategic locations, identified based on maximum ‘design basis earthquake’ elastic modal racking shear deformation demands and force (shear and moment) demands in three different options. The force, deformation and energy demands on structural components are compared for conventional design and different options of FVDs. The comparison with conventional design shows that FVDs are effective not only for reducing shear force demand along wall height, bending moment demand at mid-height and deformation demands by 10, 45 and 35%, respectively, but also significantly reduce the rotation and energy demands in the core wall by 60 and 450%, respectively.