Ant colony optimization of tuned mass dampers for earthquake oscillations of high-rise structures including soil–structure interaction

• The soil characteristics greatly influence on the favorite TMD parameters.
• The soil type also severely affects the time response of structures.
• The TMDs are advantageous devices for earthquake vibration mitigation of high-rise buildings.
• It is implied how ACO can be employed for the design of optimum TMD; considering soil effects.
• It is better to set the TMD frequency close to the first natural frequency of the structure.

This paper investigates the optimized parameters for tuned mass dampers (TMDs) to decrease the earthquake vibrations of tall buildings; involving soil–structure interaction (SSI) effects. The time domain analysis based on Newmark method is employed in this study. To illustrate the results, Tabas and Kobe earthquakes data are applied to the model, and ant colony optimization (ACO) method is utilized to obtain the best parameters for TMD. The TMD mass, damping coefficient and spring stiffness are assumed as design variables, and the objective is to reduce both the maximum displacement and acceleration of stories. It is shown that how the ACO can be effectively applied to design the optimum TMD device. It is also indicated that the soil type greatly affects the TMD optimized parameters and the time response of structures. This study helps the researchers to better understanding of earthquake vibrations, and leads the designers to achieve the optimized TMD for high-rise buildings.