Abstract
Seismic control performance of MR dampers, which have severe nonlinearity, varies with respect to the dynamic characteristics of an earthquake such as magnitude, frequency and duration. In this study, the effects of excitation characteristics on the equivalent linear system of a building structure with the MR damper are investigated through numerical analysis for artificial ground motions generated from different response spectrums. The equivalent damping ratio of the structure with the MR damper is calculated using Newmark and Hall's equations for ground motion amplification factors. It is found that the equivalent damping ratio of the structure with the MR damper is dependent on the ratio of the maximum friction force of the MR damper over excitation magnitude. Frequency contents of the earthquake ground motion affects the equivalent damping ratio of long-period structures considerably. Also, additional damping effect caused by interaction between the viscousity and friction of the MR damper is observed. Finally. response reduction factors for equivalent linear systems are proposed in order to improve accuracy in the prediction of the actual nonlinear response.
