Bio-inspired passive base isolator with tuned mass damper inerter for structural control

Inspired by the energy-dissipating mechanism of abalone shell, a bio-inspired passive base isolation system combined with a tuned mass damper inerter (TMDI) is developed. This paper presents the numerical model consisting of bio-inspired tuned mass damper inerter isolation system, structural system model, and energy response equation as an integral system for structural control. The structural control performance of the present bio-inspired base isolation system is demonstrated with numerical simulations using both a single-degree-of-freedom model and a multi-degree-of-freedom model under six different samples of earthquake excitations. A comparative study with three other types of existing base isolators reveals that the present bio-inspired tuned mass damper inerter isolation system may be relatively more effective in reducing the displacement, acceleration, input energy ratio and base shear force for the illustrative cases. In addition, a parametric study is performed to explore the effectiveness of the parameters chosen for the structure. The results illustrate that satisfactory target responses can be achieved for the examples studied by optimizing the parameters such as maximum bio-inspired force, damping coefficient, stiffness, and inertance of inerter.