Investigations of Shaking Table Test of Randomly Base-Excited Building Structures with MR Dampers

Structural vibration control has demonstrated its value for mitigating earthquake hazards and enhancing the safety and serviceability of structural systems in recent years. However, in most existing investigations of numerical simulations and experimental verifications on seismic control of structures, only several ground motions at different levels are considered. The experimental investigations of seismic performance of controlled structures accounting for the randomness inherent in the earthquake ground motions did not receive sufficient attentions. In this chapter, a complete shaking table test on a multistory shear frame structure with MR dampers is carried out. The representative time histories of ground accelerations, as the base excitation, are generated employing the stochastic ground motion model. The stochastic response analyses of the experimental structures with and without control are conducted, respectively. Experimental and analytical results indicate that the seismic performance of the test structure is significantly improved compared with that of the uncontrolled structure.