Dynamical modeling and parameter identification of seismic isolation systems by evolution strategies

An application of Evolution Strategies (ESs) to the dynamic identification of hybrid seismic isolation systems is presented. It is shown how ESs are highly effective for the optimisation of the test problem defined in previous work for methodology validation. The acceleration records of a number of dynamic tests performed on a seismically isolated building are used as reference data for the parameter identification. The application of CMA-ES to a previously existing model considerably improves previous results but at the same time reveals limitations of the model. To investigate the problem three new mechanical models with higher number of parameters are developed. The application of CMA-ES to the best designed model allows improvements of up to 79% compared to the solutions previously available in literature. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.