Existing and new building structures located in earthquake-prone areas are inherently vulnerable to damage effects caused by ground motions. One of the most effective and low-damage strategies to protect these structures is to resort to supplemental energy dissipation devices, in the form of hysteretic, viscous, or inertial dampers. In the last few years, these devices are demonstrating their capability to limit earthquake-induced damage even after severe seismic events, thus implying minimal downtime and reduced repairing cost in both ordinary and strategic/critical building structures. However, the efficiency of such devices in enhancing the seismic performance of structures strongly relies on their appropriate placement in the building structure as well as in the selection of their constitutive parameters. Another open issue is incorporating the uncertain nature of the seismic excitation in a robust design framework. A smart design strategy using passive dampers should account for the peculiar characteristics of the structure and should aim at achieving multi-level performance requirements under different levels of excitation through robust multi-objective optimization.
Based on these motivations, this Research Topic aims to collect the latest research results on these open issues, by welcoming contributions from researchers, manufacturers and practitioners that include, but are not limited to, the following aspects:
• Smart passive damper design that explicitly incorporates the uncertain features of the seismic excitation;
• Simultaneous optimal design of main building structures and dampers under critical seismic excitation;
• Innovative energy dissipation technologies and hybrid dampers for an improved earthquake-resilient building design;
• Smart damper optimization under long-period pulse-type ground motions of extremely large amplitudes;
• Robust damper optimization methodologies powered by artificial intelligence tools;
• Case studies or emblematic examples of implemented damper devices in building structures using smart design strategies;
• Performance-based assessment of building structures equipped with passive dampers.
Existing and new building structures located in earthquake-prone areas are inherently vulnerable to damage effects caused by ground motions. One of the most effective and low-damage strategies to protect these structures is to resort to supplemental energy dissipation devices, in the form of hysteretic, viscous, or inertial dampers. In the last few years, these devices are demonstrating their capability to limit earthquake-induced damage even after severe seismic events, thus implying minimal downtime and reduced repairing cost in both ordinary and strategic/critical building structures. However, the efficiency of such devices in enhancing the seismic performance of structures strongly relies on their appropriate placement in the building structure as well as in the selection of their constitutive parameters. Another open issue is incorporating the uncertain nature of the seismic excitation in a robust design framework. A smart design strategy using passive dampers should account for the peculiar characteristics of the structure and should aim at achieving multi-level performance requirements under different levels of excitation through robust multi-objective optimization.
Based on these motivations, this Research Topic aims to collect the latest research results on these open issues, by welcoming contributions from researchers, manufacturers and practitioners that include, but are not limited to, the following aspects:
• Smart passive damper design that explicitly incorporates the uncertain features of the seismic excitation;
• Simultaneous optimal design of main building structures and dampers under critical seismic excitation;
• Innovative energy dissipation technologies and hybrid dampers for an improved earthquake-resilient building design;
• Smart damper optimization under long-period pulse-type ground motions of extremely large amplitudes;
• Robust damper optimization methodologies powered by artificial intelligence tools;
• Case studies or emblematic examples of implemented damper devices in building structures using smart design strategies;
• Performance-based assessment of building structures equipped with passive dampers.