Mitigation of seismic effects: addition of viscous dampers between adjacent structures

This paper presents the results of an extensive study carried out to investigate the effectiveness, for the mitigation of the seismic effects, of placing viscous dampers which connect the corresponding storeys of adjacent structures. These structures may be either two adjacent shear frame buildings or two portions of the same building (the structure and a lateral resisting element external or internal to the structure). A first analytical approach carried out with reference to a basic system composed of two adjacent SDOF systems linked by a single damper is developed in order to understand the physical properties which govern the prob-lem in question. Then, a wide series of numerical simulations is carried out. Results show that this peculiar damper placement is capable of providing damping effects upon both the structures which are larger than those which could be provided by typical interstorey damper placement as applied to the whole (rigidly-connected) structure.