Optimal placement of energy dissipation devices for three-dimensional structures

In recent years, serious efforts have been undertaken to develop the concept of energy dissipation or supplemental damping into a workable technology, and a number of these devices have been implemented to structures in the US and elsewhere. As applications of this technology accelerate, an increasingly important issue is one of positioning these devices in a structure to maximize their effectiveness at minimum cost. This paper addresses this optimal placement problem when applied to structures where both translational and torsional responses are of major concern. Optimization procedures due to translation-torsion coupling effects or due to unsymmetrically placed devices are developed and verified through numerical examples. The effect of ground motion characteristics on the positioning of energy dissipation devices is also examined.