Seismic Performance of Coupled Buildings Connected by Yield and SMA Dampers

Efficient attenuation and control of structural vibration during a seismic event is a critical factor for overall safety and serviceability of the adjacent buildings with little clearance between them. Without proper vibration control measures, adjacent buildings may undergo severe pounding and collapse leading to damage of life and property during an earthquake. Use of energy dissipation devices to connect adjacent buildings has been a popular method of vibration control and to stop mutual poundings. Among various available energy dissipation devices, Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) based dampers are getting popularity in recent time. Various studies are performed to show the efficiency of SMAs as passive vibration control device, but a holistic study of SMA dampers for non-linear connected buildings is still missing. Thus, here a comparative study on the efficiency of metallic yield and super-elastic SMA dampers as passive vibration control device is provided, for non-linear connect buildings. In the present study, non-linear dynamic time history analyses are performed to determine the response (peak floor acceleration and displacement, and floor residual displacement). Time history analyses confirm better acceleration and displacement (both peak and residual) control efficiency of SMA dampers over yield dampers. Finally, superiority of the SMA damper over the yield damper is established via parametric study under varying damper, building and ground motion parameters. Over yield damper, SMA damper reduces acceleration by 13 % to 56 %, displacement by 2 % to 47 %, and residual displacement by 15 % to 64 %.