Application of a Genetic Algorithm for Optimal Damper Distribution within the Nonlinear Seismic Benchmark Building

This paper presents a systematic method for identifying the optimal damper distribution to control the seismic response of a 20-story benchmark building. A genetic algorithm with integer representation was used to determine the damper locations. Both H2- and H∞-norms of the linear system transfer function were utilized as the objective functions. Moreover, frequency weighting was incorporated into the objective functions so that the genetic algorithm emphasized minimization of the response in the second mode of vibration instead of the dominant first mode. The results from numerical simulations of the nonlinear benchmark building show that, depending on the objective function used, the optimal damper locations can vary significantly. However, most of dampers tend to be concentrated in the lowermost and uppermost stories. In general, the damper configurations evaluated herein performed well in terms of reducing the seismic response of the benchmark building in comparison to the uncontrolled building.