Optimal seismic retrofit design method for asymmetric soft first-story structures

Generally, the goal of seismic retrofit design of an existing structure using energy dissipation devices is to determine the optimum design parameters of a retrofit device to satisfy a specified limit state with minimum cost. However, the presence of multiple parameters to be optimized and the computational complexity of performing non-linear analysis make it difficult to find the optimal design parameters in the realistic 3D structure. In this study, genetic algorithm-based optimal seismic retrofit methods for determining the required number, yield strength, and location of steel slit dampers are proposed to retrofit an asymmetric soft first-story structure. These methods use a multi-objective and single-objective evolutionary algorithms, each of which varies in computational complexity and incorporates nonlinear time-history analysis to determine seismic performance. Pareto-optimal solutions of the multi-objective optimization are found using a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGAII). It is demonstrated that the developed multi-objective optimization methods can determine the optimum number, yield strength, and location of dampers that satisfy the given limit state of a three-dimensional asymmetric soft first-story structure. It is also shown that the single-objective distribution method based on minimizing plan-wise stiffness eccentricity turns out to produce similar number of dampers in optimum locations without time consuming nonlinear dynamic analysis.