Seismic response controlled structure with Active Variable Stiffness system

Abstract The Active Variable Stiffness (AVS) system is proposed as a seismic response control system. It actively controls structural characteristics, such as stiffness of a building, to establish a non‐resonant state against earthquake excitations, thus suppressing the building's response. It consumes a relatively small amount of energy and maintains the safety of the building in moderate to severe earthquakes. In order to accumulate practical data and investigate them, a building has been constructed as a trial. This paper describes the applied system, the control algorithm, verification of stiffness selection, results of tests for verifying system characteristics, some observed earthquake records and simulation analyses. Responses in controlled and uncontrolled states have been compared to show the effectiveness of the proposed system.