DESIGN OF TUNED MASS DAMPERS FOR VIBRATION CONTROL OF WIND-INDUCED MOTION OF A TALL TOWER

Abstract

Wind-induced vibrations of building can lead to serviceability problem for occupants if the acceleration exceeds the level of human comfort. This problem often occurs, especially in the design of tall buildings. To mitigate vibration problems, increasing the lateral stiffness of the structure is commonly employed, often resulting in significantly larger building elements. The alternative approach, which has proven to be more effective, is the implementation of vibration control devices such as Tuned Mass Dampers (TMD) or Multiple Tuned Mass Dampers (MTMD). This article presents the design of an MTMD system, which can be modelled and analyzed using a general structural analysis software, for a 140-meter tall tower with a fundamental frequency of approximately 0.26 Hz and very low damping. The tower has occasionally experienced excessive vibrations that exceed the threshold of occupant perception. This study determines the optimal parameters of the MTMD system through a dynamic analysis of the tower under harmonic excitation. The effectiveness of the MTMD system is evaluated from the response of the tower subjected to the force simulated from the response from measurements taken under severe vibration conditions. Additionally, the design of the MTMD components is studied to demonstrate the application.