Integrated Passive/Active Vibration Absorber for Multistory Buildings

In this paper, a passive isolator, an active vibration absorber, and an integrated passive/active (hybrid) control are studied for their effectiveness in reducing structural vibration under seismic excitations. For the passive isolator, a laminated rubber bearing base isolator, which has been studied and used extensively by researchers and seismic designers, is studied. An active vibration absorber concept, which can provide guaranteed closed-loop stability with minimum knowledge of the controlled system, is used to reduce the passive isolator displacement and to suppress vibration. A three-story building model is used for the numerical simulation. The performance of an active vibration absorber and a hybrid vibration controller in reducing peak structural responses is compared with the passively isolated structural response under the N00W component of the El Centro 1940 and N90W component of the Mexico City 1985 earthquake excitation records.