Effectiveness of Tuned Mass Dampers in Seismic Response Control of Isolated Bridges Including Soil-Structure Interaction

Abstract The effect of soil-structure interaction (SSI) on the dynamic responses of seismically isolated three-span continuous reinforced concrete (RC) bridge is investigated. Also, tuned mass damper(s) (TMD/s) is/are installed to control undesirable bearing displacement, even under the SSI effect. The TMDs are placed at the mid-span of the bridge and each tuned with a modal frequency, while controlling up to first few modes as desirable. The soil surrounding the foundation of pier is modeled by frequency independent coefficients. Dynamic analysis is carried out in time domain using direct integration method. In order to specify the effects of the SSI, the responses of the non-isolated, isolated, and controlled isolated bridge are compared. It is observed that the soil surrounding the pier has significant effects on the bearing displacement of the isolated RC bridges. In addition, it is observed that the seismic responses of isolated RC bridge reduced significantly with installation of the TMDs.