Using an artificial bee colony algorithm for the optimal placement of viscous dampers in planar building frames

In this study, an Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm (ABCA) is used to obtain the optimal size and location of viscous dampers in planar buildings to reduce the damage to the frame systems during an earthquake. The transfer function amplitude of the top displacement and the elastic base shear force evaluated at the first natural circular frequency of structures are chosen as objective functions. The damper coefficients of the added viscous dampers are taken into consideration as design variables in a planar building frame. Transfer function amplitude of the top displacement and the amplitude of the elastic base shear force at the fundamental natural frequency are minimized under an active constraint on sum of the damper coefficients of the added dampers. According to two specified objective functions, an optimization algorithm based on the ABCA is proposed. The proposed method is verified by a gradient‐based algorithm; steepest direction search algorithm (SDSA). The proposed ABCA and the SDSA are applied to find the optimal damper distribution for a nine‐storey planar building then the optimal damper allocation obtained from the ABCA is investigated to rehabilitate models of irregular planar buildings. The validity of the proposed method was demonstrated through a time history analysis of the optimal damper designs, which were determined based on the frequency domain using the ABCA. The numerical results of the proposed optimal damper design method show that the use of the ABCA can be a practical and powerful tool to determine the optimal damper allocation in planar building structures.