The near field ground motions have a high amplitude pulse like at the beginning of the seismogram which are significantly influenced by the rupture mechanism and direction of rupture propagation. This type of ground motion cause higher demands for engineering structures and its response spectrum is dramatically different than far field spectra.

Tabriz is one of the ancient cities in

Azerbaijan province with many industrial factories, financial centers and historical monuments in North-West of Iran. In this region, North Tabriz Fault which has a well known history of intense seismic activity is passing through in close distance of urban area. In this regard investigation of near field ground motion effect on current practice seismic design spectrum in this region is necessary.

Hence, probabilistic seismic hazard analysis is carried out using appropriate attenuation relationship to consider near field effect. The peak ground acceleration (PGA) and several spectral accelerations (SA) over bedrock are estimated for different return periods and maps of iso acceleration contour lines are provided to indicate the earthquake hazard in different points of

Tabriz city.

Afterward, the generated horizontal equal-hazard spectrums considering near field effect are compared with different spectrums developed base on simple pulses model for near field motion. Both types spectrum used to verify current practice seismic design spectrum of Iranian code (2005) and International Building Code (IBC 2000). The results reveal the long-period structures which are seismically designed based on current practice seismic codes are in high risk to be damaged during near fault ground motion.

In this paper, the optimal location and characteristics of TADAS dampers in moment resisting steel structures, considering the application of minimum number of TADAS dampers in a building as an objective function and the restriction for destruction of main members is studied. Genetic algorithm in first generation randomly produces different chromosomes representing unique TADAS dampers distributions in structure and the structure corresponding to each chromosome is time history analyzed. Then the damage index for each member and the average weighted damage index for all members are determined. Genetic algorithm evaluates the fitness of each chromosome then selection and crossover as logical operators and mutation as random operator effect the current generation's chromosomes according to their fitness and new chromosomes are generated. Accordingly, successive generations are reproduced in the same way until the convergence condition is fulfilled in final generation and four distributions are suggested as better options. Since these proposed distributions are selected under the one earthquake, therefore, it is better that the four new structures are cost-benefit analyzed in different earthquakes. Finally, the optimal placement for dampers is compared and selected based on a benefit to cost ratio, drift stories and the number of different TADAS types of such structures. The increase in amount of energy dissipated via dampers located in different floors as well as the status of plastic hinges in main members of the structure strengthened with optimum option are the proof of the optimal placement and suitable characteristics for dampers.