Use of a shared tuned mass damper (STMD) to reduce vibration and pounding in adjacent structures

The dynamic response of tall civil structures due to earthquakes is very im portant to civil engineers. Structures exposed to earthquakes experience vi brations that are detrimental to their structural components. Structural po unding is an additional problem that occurs when buildings experience earth quake excitation. This phenomena occurs when adjacent structures collide fr om their out-of-phase vibrations. Many energy dissipation devices are prese ntly being used to reduce the system response. Tuned mass dampers (TMD) are commonly used to improve the response of structures. The stiffness and dam ping properties of the TMD are designed to be a function of the natural fre quency of the building to which it is connected. This research involves att aching adjacent structures with a shared tuned mass damper (STMD) to reduce both the structures vibration and probability of pounding. Because the STM D is connected to both buildings, the problem of tuning the STMD stiffness and damping parameters becomes an issue. A design procedure utilizing a per formance function is used to obtain the STMD parameters to result in the be st overall system response. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.