SEISMIC RESPONSE MODELS FOR STEEL MOMENT-RESISTING FRAMES EQUIPPED WITH FLUID VISCOUS DAMPERS

The implementation of fluid viscous dampers has been proven to be an efficient technology to increase the seismic performance of a structure. However, the different parameters involved in the design of the damping system can significantly influence the dynamic response of the structure, especially the seismic acceleration demand on nonstructural elements. Knowing such effects at an early design stage can allow a more comprehensive damper design aimed at improving both structural and nonstructural seismic performance. This paper presents six seismic response prediction models for the peak inter-story drift, peak floor absolute acceleration, and peak floor spectral absolute acceleration, for steel moment-resisting frames equipped with fluid viscous dampers following two design procedures. The prediction models were developed using Gaussian Process Regressions trained with the results of more than 95,000 nonlinear time-history analyses carried out using the FEMA P695 far-field ground motion set scaled to four increasing intensities and comprising three archetype steel framed buildings with 180 configurations of fluid viscous dampers for each frame. The seismic response prediction models were evaluated with a different archetype frame showing a good approximation of the predicted seismic response values.