L2M – Design and Development of Smart Wall Damper for Seismic Control of High-Rise Buildings

Rapid urbanization has triggered a global surge in the construction of high-rise buildings, necessitating their robust designs to withstand the impact of natural hazards, such as earthquakes and strong winds. In response to this challenge, innovative strategies are being explored to mitigate the deformations and accelerations imparted on high-rise structures by these natural hazards. One promising avenue involves the integration of supplemental control systems, wherein an additional damping element is seamlessly incorporated into the building’s lateral-force-resisting framework. This augmentation serves the purpose of dissipating energy and suppressing motion.
The objective of the proposed project-based is to develop an innovative self-sensing and self-actuating smart structural control system, called a smart wall damper (SWD), which is to be enriched with embedded sensors. It will provide a practical system to be embedded in high-rise buildings while being a relatively low-cost and easy-to-use health-monitoring component. The SWD uses magnetorheological fluid (with variable viscosity) to provide the desired damping and energy dissipation capacity needed for resisting extreme lateral loads in high-rise buildings.

Faculty Supervisor:

Deborah Roberts

Student:

Partner:

I-INC Foundation for Business Development

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Northern British Columbia

Program: