Abstract
An optimization approach is presented for improving energy dissipation capacity of passive seismic control devices under cyclic deformation. A general purpose finite element software package is combined with a heuristic optimization algorithm called tabu search that is based on local search. The objective function is the dissipated energy before the maximum value of equivalent plastic strains among all elements reaches the upper bound under the prescribed loading condition. Constraints are given for the reaction force and reaction moment at the boundaries between the device and frame members. It is demonstrated in the numerical examples that the performances of a shear-type hysteretic steel damper can be successfully improved by optimizing the geometry of the device and the thicknesses of the stiffeners, as well as the aspect ratio of damper.
