Control of Reinforced Concrete Frame Structures via Active Tuned Mass Dampers

In this paper, an active structural control method called active tuned mass dampers (ATMDs) was applied to reinforced concrete frame structures. ATMD is positioned on the top of the structure and uses a proportional integral derivative (PID) controller. Both damper and PID controller properties are optimized via an improved harmony search algorithm. During the optimization, the limit of control force, stroke capacity of ATMD and time-delay of the control system is considered. As the numerical example, a 15-story frame building is presented and the optimum ATMD is effective to reduce maximum displacement by 37.5% for critical excitation.