Earthquake response analysis of wooden houses with visco-elastic structural control device: Construction of earthquake-resistant design method for structurally controlled wooden houses

This paper discusses a method to evaluate a seismic response of typical wooden houses with a passive vibration control system bymeans of a non-linear time history analysis and an equivalent linearization method, with a purpose to establish a structural design methodology for wooden houses. In the time history analysis, a hysteresis model which represents characteristics of a passive control system is proposed, and the applicability is validated by comparing analysis results with experimental values obtained by pseudodynamic tests and shaking table tests. The proposed model is expressed by combining a fractional derivative model and two types of Bonc-Wen model, that is capable of evaluating properly the effects of the viscous damper which is affected by temperature changes, and a stopper to constrain the displacement of the damper. In the numerical evaluation with use of an equivalent linearization method, additional stiffness and damping ratio of the passive control system are determined based on numerically evaluated results corresponding to the resonant frequency of the main frame. The accuracy of the adopted values is validated by comparing the predicted results based on equivalent linearization method with time history analyses, and it is confirmed that these analysis results may be predicted within error of about 5 %.