A numerical method for the dynamic analysis of buildings provided with viscoelastic devices

Improved methods of analysis and design, along with refinements in the device hardware, make the use of viscoelastic devices completely suitable for consideration in both new and retrofitted buildings in earthquake- and wind-prone areas. In this framework, a novel numerical scheme is presented for the time-domain dynamic analysis of MDoF linear structures provided with linear viscoelastic dampers of know relaxation function. The computational burden is dramatically reduced by using a suitable modal transformation of coordinates, coupled with the Laguerre Polynomial Approximation (LPA) technique. A representative numerical example is included for the validation purposes.