FURI | Fall 2018

Inducing Structural Stability by use of Dampeners on Structural Systems affected by Earthquakes

Structural systems often fail at the cost of livelihood of their inhabitants due to their inability to properly dampen seismic forces. The objective of this research project is to discover the optimum ratio between the size of a structural system and that structure’s dampening equipment by utilizing a modeling tool created in MATLAB. The computer-generated model is that of a shear building with a passive dampener attempting to negate the motion of the structure caused by the earthquake. In the future, the model will need to be verified and compared to a real-life model to judge the program’s viability.