Wind-induced excitation control of a tall building with tuned mass dampers

To investigate the effectiveness of a tuned mass damper (TMD) in suppressing wind-induced excitation motion of a tall building, aeroelastic wind tunnel tests and theoretical analyses were conducted. A 1:500 scaled model of an aeroelastic tall building was built, and TMD models of mass ratios of 1% and 2%, respectively, were designed and tested with the building model. This study investigates the contribution of the inherent structural damping of the building model to the effectiveness of the TMD. Spectral analyses were conducted to verify the test results and to perform a parametric study. According to the experimental and analytical investigation, the effectiveness of the TMD increased when the inherent structural damping was decreased in response to both along-wind and the cross-wind directions. The parametric study revealed that a certain TMD damping ratio can maximize the effectiveness of the TMD.