Seismic vibration control is a set of technical means

aimed to mitigate seismic impacts in building and non-

building structures. All seismic vibration control
devices may be classified
as passive, active or hybrid
[19]
where:
passive control devices have
no feedback capability between them, structural
elements and the ground;
active control devices incorporate real-time
recording instrumentation on the ground
integrated with earthquake input processing
equipment and actuators within the structure;
hybrid control devices have combined features
of active and passive control systems.
[20]

When ground seismic waves reach up and start to
penetrate a base of a building, their energy flow
density, due to reflections, reduces dramatically:
usually, up to 90%. However, the remaining portions
of the incident waves during a major earthquake still
bear a huge devastating potential.
After the seismic waves enter a superstructure, there
are a number of ways to control them in order to
soothe their damaging effect and improve the
building's seismic performance, for instance:
to dissipate the wave energy inside
a superstructure with properly
engineered dampers;
to disperse the wave energy between a wider
range of frequencies;
to absorb the resonant portions of the whole
wave frequencies band with the help of so-
called mass dampers.
[21]



Mausoleum of Cyrus, the oldestbase-isolated structure
in the world
Devices of the last kind, abbreviated correspondingly
as TMD for the tuned (passive), as AMD for the active,
and as HMD for the hybrid mass dampers, have been
studied and installed in high-rise buildings,
predominantly in Japan, for a quarter of a century.
However, there is quite another approach: partial
suppression of the seismic energy flow into
the superstructure known as seismic or base isolation.
For this, some pads are inserted into or under all
major load-carrying elements in the base of the
building which should substantially decouple
a superstructure from its substructure resting on a
shaking ground.
The first evidence of earthquake protection by using
the principle of base isolation was discovered
in Pasargadae, a city in ancient Persia, now Iran, and
dates back to 6th century BCE. Below, there are some
samples of seismic vibration control technologies of
today.
Active Control System
The basic configuration of an active control system is
schematically shown in figure. The system consists of
three basic elements:
1. Sensors to measure external excitation and/or
structural response.
2. Computer hardware and software to compute
control forces on the basis of observed
excitation and/or structural response.
3. Actuators to provide the necessary control
forces.
Thus in active system has to necessarily have an
external energy input to drive the actuators. On the
other hand passive systems do not required external
energy and their efficiency depends on tunings of
system to expected excitation and structural behavior.
As a result, the passive systems are effective only for
the modes of the vibrations for which these are tuned.
Thus the advantage of an active system lies in its
much wider range of applicability since the control
forces are worked out on the basis of actual excitation
and structural behavior. In the active system when
only external excitation is measured system is said to
be in open-looped. However when the structural
response is used as input, the system is in closed loop
control. In certain instances the excitation and
response both are used and it is termed as open-
closed loop control.
Base Isolation
It is easiest to see this principle at work by
referring directly to the most widely used of these
advanced techniques, which is known as base
isolation. A base isolated structure is supported
by a series of bearing pads which are placed
between the building and the building's
foundation.(See Figure 1) A variety of different
types of base isolation bearing pads have now
been developed. For our example, we'll discuss
leadrubber bearings. These are among the
frequentlyused types of base isolation bearings.
(See Figure 2) A leadrubber bearing is made
from layers of rubber sandwiched together with
layers of steel. In the middle of the bearing is a
solid lead "plug." On top and bottom, the bearing
is fitted with steel plates which are used to attach
the bearing to the building and foundation. The
bearing is very stiff and strong in the vertical
direction, but flexible in the horizontal direction.

Damping Devices and Bracing Systems

(fig. 5)
Damping devices are usually installed as part of
bracing systems. Figure 5 shows one type of
damperbrace arrangement, with one end
attached to a column and one end attached to a
floor beam. Primarily, this arrangement provides
the column with additional support.
Most earthquake ground motion is in a horizontal
direction; so, it is a building's columns which
normally undergo the most displacement relative
to the motion of the ground. Figure 5 also shows
the damping device installed as part of the
bracing system and gives some idea of its action.
Spherical Sliding Isolation Systems
As we said earlier, leadrubber bearings are just
one of a number of different types of base
isolation bearings which have now been
developed. Spherical Sliding Isolation Systems
are another type of base isolation. The building is
supported by bearing pads that have a curved
surface and low friction.

(fig. 4)
During an earthquake, the building is free to slide
on the bearings. Since the bearings have a
curved surface, the building slides both
horizontally and vertically (See Figure 4.) The
force needed to move the building upwards limits
the horizontal or lateral forces which would
otherwise cause building deformations. Also, by
adjusting the radius of the bearing's curved
surface, this property can be used to design
bearings that also lengthen the building's period
of vibration.
Shear Walls
Shear walls are vertical walls that are designed to
receive lateral forces from diaphragms and
transmit them to the ground. The forces in these
walls are predominantly shear forces in which the
fibers within the wall try to slide past one another.
(fig. 2)
When you build a house of cards, you design a
shear wall structure, and you soon learn that
sufficient card "walls" must be placed at right
angles to one another or the house will collapse.
If you were to connect your walls together with
tape, it is easy to see that the strength of this
house of cards would significantly increase. This
illustrates a very important point, in which the
earthquake resistance of any building is highly
dependent upon the connections joining the
building's larger structural members, such as
walls, beams, columns and floor-slabs.
Shear walls, in particular, must be strong in
themselves and also strongly connected to each
other and to the horizontal diaphragms. In a
simple building with shear walls at each end,
ground motion enters the building and creates
inertial forces that move the floor diaphragms.
This movement is resisted by the shear walls and
the forces are transmitted back down to the
foundation.