The application of a new structural control concept for tall building with large podium structure

The concept of coupled building control has been proposed and investigated extensively but mainly limited to theoretical and experimental studies concerning two parallel adjacent buildings. As a further step, this paper extends the applicable scope of the control concept and presents an investigation on its engineering application to a tall building (60 stories of total height of 333 m) and its surrounding large podium structure (10 stories of total height of 49 m) in order to, principally, reduce seismic torsional response of the podium structure, which results from large eccentricity of stiffness and mass distribution in podium structures. First the building is briefly described, and a macroscopic finite element model for this structure is introduced. Subsequently, the analytical model and performance test of the linking viscous fluid dampers are introduced simply. Next, seismic responses of the building subjected to two levels of earthquake with different return periods are analyzed comprehensively. The results show that using linking dampers can effectively reduce torsional seismic response of the podium structure. In addition, seismic performance of the main building can be also enhanced but in different ways. Finally, 40 linking viscous fluid dampers with maximum capacity of 600 kN for each damper were selected to connect the podium structure to the main building, and the construction of the building was completed already and put into use in the year of 2005.