Development of equivalent linear systems for single-degree-of-freedom structures with magneto-rheological dampers for seismic design application

Numerous studies have been conducted for magneto-rheological dampers, but the application of magneto-rheological dampers in seismic design is limited due to the lack of a systematical design procedure. In this article, a simplified analysis procedure is proposed to estimate the response of a single-degree-of-freedom structure with diagonal bracing and a magneto-rheological damper without performing the time history analysis. The proposed simplified analysis procedure is based on the equivalent linear system of a magneto-rheological damper. The equivalent damping ratio and the effective period of the single-degree-of-freedom system are determined from the loss factor and the effective stiffness of the magneto-rheological damper based on the quasi-static model. Design response spectrum is utilized to calculate the displacement of the single-degree-of-freedom system. The equivalent damping ratio and the effective stiffness of the single-degree-of-freedom system are dependent on the displacement of the system; thus, the proposed procedure is iterated until the displacement from the design response spectrum converges. The accuracy of the simplified analysis procedure is evaluated by comparing the estimated response from this procedure with the response from the time history analysis. The results show a good agreement between two methods, demonstrating the robustness of the proposed simplified analysis procedure.