Optimal Placement of Passive Dampers on Seismic and Wind-Excited Buildings using Combinatorial Optimization

The performance of energy dissipative systems for the response reduction of complex civil engineering structures depends on their locations in the structure. In this paper, the optimal locations of energy dissipative systems have been investigated using combinatorial optimization based integer heuristic programming techniques. Three intelligent search algorithms, namely, sequential, Worst-Out-Best-In (WOBI) and Exhaustive Single Point Substitution (ESPS) search methods, have been used to determine optimal locations for different types of objective functions. The applications of the proposed approach for the determination of optimal locations have been demonstrated for three seismic-excited buildings and one wind-excited building. It is shown that the optimal locations obtained by minimizing the peak interstory drift of buildings depend on the specific design earthquake. The WOBI and ESPS methods have been found to be quite effective in improving the locations obtained by the sequential search method.