THESIS PROPOSAL ON

OPTIMIZATION OF USING VISCOUS WALL

DAMPERS(VWDs) ON APARTMENT BUILDING
(CASE STUDY)
PRESENTED BY:
Ramesh Prajapati(ME07813)

Post Graduate Department of Earthquake Engineering

KHWOPA ENGINEERING COLLEGE
Bhaktapur, Nepal
INTRODUCTION:
• Nepal is 11th seismic vulnerable country in the world according to UNDP
2004 report
• Nepal has large severe destructive earthquake history, there have been
historical records of large earthquakes in years 1253, 1407, 1681, 1803,
1824, 1833 and 1835
• On 25th April 2015,Gorkha earthquake struck near Kathmandu valley
center of Nepal killed about 8900 and more than thousand injured and
more than 600000 structure were damaged
• Recently Jajarkot earthquake(Mw=6.4) that struck Jajarkot and Rukum
districts western region of Nepal on 3rd November 2023, killed about
157 people and nearly 170 injured and more than 25000 structure were
damaged
NEED OF STUDY:
• In Nepal, the desire for high rise apartment building has risen because of
the expanding population and limited residential space in urban regions
• Following the enactment of the Apartment Act, 2055 in Nepal, numerous
apartment buildings were constructed in the Kathmandu Valley, effectively
addressing the growing housing demand in the region
• Ensuring the people of occupants in a building during earthquakes is
crucial, which is why seismic design codes impose restrictions on drift and
displacement.
• Recently, a lot of researchers have investigated on different energy
dissipation devices, such as passive and active dampers, to improve and
enhance effective performance on seismic behavior on structures
• Designers are increasingly favoring viscous wall dampers(VWDs)
among various passive damping systems because of their geometry
and capacity to seamlessly integrate into the structure without altering
its architectural integrity
• VWDs have primarily found application in flexible framing systems,
such as moment frames, to mitigate inter-story drifts and limit the
inelastic behavior of columns and beams, among other uses.
• Incorporating viscous wall dampers, whether in initial design or
retrofitting efforts, significantly diminishes both nonstructural and
structural hazards, making them particularly beneficial for high-rise
buildings situated in the Kathmandu Valley
• VWDs were introduced in Nepal for the first time in a residential
apartment building with G+12 and double basement
• VWDs demonstrate superior performance and enhance structural
stability over extended periods, particularly in the face of strong
ground motion
• Optimization of using VWDs in apartment building to get optimal
design to good performance in seismic behavior

Figure 1: Schematic representation of VWD Components and concept

OBJECTIVE OF STUDY:
The proposed study aims to achieve the following objectives:
• To compare the response of a bare frame model with that of a model
incorporating viscous wall dampers
• To assess the performance based design of viscous wall dampers
across high-rise apartment buildings
• To find out optimize of VWDs in high rise apartment building by
comparison with reduce story displacement, inter-story drift ratio,
and base shear compared various positioning of VWDs.
• To find out the number of hinges in each performance level (IO-LS, LS-
CP, >CP) for building with different position VWDs to get optimized
VWDs in the building better seismic performance
LITERATURE REVIEW:
• Viscous Wall Dampers were invented in Japan in late 1980s. Arima et
al., 1988 studies on building with large damping using viscous
damping walls. The VD wall design formulas obtained from series of
test using high viscous fluid materials were presented. The
effectiveness of VD walls was confirmed through 5-story scaled down
model and 4-story full scale steel frame model with/without devices
by an earthquake simulator. The response analyses of the practical
structure, using inelastic time history dynamic analysis. The result
shows VD walls are mostly employed there as an earthquake
prevention mechanism
• Dilsiz et al., 2018 preforms evaluation of wall damper effectiveness on the seismic
the buildings. A readily available computational model for wall dampers is
implemented and used in this study to analytically investigate the seismic response
of high-rise buildings with and without wall dampers. In this paper, we consider a
governmental building that requires retrofitting to satisfy current seismic demands
in addition to limiting the inter-story drifts to a 1.5% for enhanced performance. A
30-story with four basement RC building that is located in Turkey and use core
shear walls as lateral resistance systems is considered with and without wall
dampers for this study. A three-dimensional (3D) model for the building was
developed using ETABs and 7 different ground motion data were selected and
nonlinear response history analysis was performed. NRHA was conducted to
compare the seismic response (mainly story displacements and inter-story drift
ratios) of the building with and without VWD. The result shows the wall dampers
were shown to effectively reduce maximum inter-story drift ratios from more than
2% to less than the 1.5% target performance objective, i.e. about 25% reduction,
and thus, VWD can be considered as a potential solution for controlling drift ratios
if implemented as a retrofit strategy.
• Viscoelastic Wall Dampers (VWDs) were introduced for the first time
in steel moment resisting frames in the U.S., with prototype testing
conducted to establish their properties for application in nonlinear
time history analysis (Newell et al., 2011) . A 15-story hospital
building in San Francisco California was introduced with VWDs to
provide supplemental damping in the structure. In the study first, a
prototype testing of VWD was performed and based on the testing
results, a modeling scheme were developed for implementation in
nonlinear response history analysis using the computer software
package PERFORM-3D. For this hospital with the used of VWDs,
roof level nonstructural component seismic design forces were
reduced by approximately 30%
• In the study by Mrad et al.(2021), comparison of strengthening
solutions with optimized passive energy dissipation systems in
symmetric buildings of varying heights revealed distinct preferences,
Friction dampers proved effective for low rise buildings, viscous
damping was preferred for mid-rise buildings and tuned mass dampers
systems was found most suitable for high-rise buildings.
• Basu et al. (2021) conducted a comprehensive analysis of ground
motion parameters for the 2015 Nepal Earthquake and its major
aftershocks, encompassing 21 established parameters. The study
examined near-field stations in the Kathmandu basin and far-field
stations in the Indo-Ganga basin, including site response behavior
with varying sediment thickness. Additionally, they developed a new
ground motion model based on moment magnitude, rupture
distance, site class, and sediment depth as predictor variables
METHODOLOGY:
Data collection and reviews of existing literatures and seismic design code

Selection of high rise apartment building in Kathmandu for case study

Modeling of bare frame 3D model of apartment building with VWDs using

ETABSv20

Nonlinear time history analysis trials to get optimization location of VWDs for
the performance analysis in the particular case as per NBC 105:2020

Conclusion, discussion and recommendation are made based upon results

EXPECTED OUTCOMES:

• To find out optimize of VWDs in high rise apartment building by

comparison with reduce story displacement, inter-story drift ratio,
and base shear compared different positioning of VWDs.
• To find out the number of hinges in each performance level (IO-LS, LS-
CP, >CP) for building with different position VWDs to get optimized
VWDs in the building better seismic performance
TIME FRAME AND SCHEDULE:
Date
Activities
April May June July August Sept
Concept development
Literature Review
Proposal writing and submission
Finite Element modelling of bare frame apartment
buildings
Non-linear time history modal analysis
Hit and trail the model by the optimal placing of VWDs
to optimization
Result interpretation and conclusion
Report writing
Final Report Preparation and submission
REFERENCES:
• Arima, F., Miyazaki, M., Tanaka, H., & Yamazaki, Y. (1988). A study on buildings with large
damping using viscous damping walls. Proceedings of the 9th World Conference on
Earthquake Engineering, 821.
• Basu, J., Podili, B., Raghukanth, S. T. G., & Srinagesh, D. (2021). Ground Motion
Parameters For the 2015 Nepal Earthquake.
• Dilsiz, A., Mohammed, M. S., Özuygur, A. R., & Moustafa, M. A. (2018). Evaluation of wall
damper effectiveness on the seismic performance of buildings. Proc. of the 11th US
National Conf. on Earthquake Eng.(11NCEE), 25–29.
• Mrad, C., Titirla, M. D., & Larbi, W. (2021). Comparison of strengthening solutions with
optimized passive energy dissipation systems in symmetric buildings. Applied Sciences,
11(21), 10103.
• Newell, J., Love, J., Sinclair, M., Chen, Y.-N., & Kasalanati, A. (2011). Seismic design of a 15
story hospital using viscous wall dampers. Structures Congress 2011, 815–826.
THANK YOU!!!