Double skin façades as mass dampers

An integrative system is proposed by investigating the utilization of double skin façades as mass dampers in buildings to improve both building safety and energy efficiency. Façade systems protect buildings and also significantly affect building energy usage. By enabling movements in double skin facades, the author proposed to use them as mass dampers that reduce structural vibration and damage during earthquakes and wind storms. The synergy of the proposed system can lead to buildings that are structurally safe, energy efficient, and ultimately sustainable. The preliminary results related to the structural control aspects of the proposed system are presented in this paper. The façade damper system is first formulated and earthquake responses are simulated. Then, the damper parameters (stiffness and damping coefficients) are optimized using a pattern search algorithm to minimize structural responses to stochastic and historical earthquake excitations. Five configurations with one-, two-, four-, five- and ten-dampers are optimized and analyzed. The optimized configurations can significantly reduce vibrations.