Experimental verification of a tuned mass damper system with two‐phase support mechanism

Abstract

Abstract The study involved proposing a tuned mass damper (TMD) system with a novel mechanism for supporting the mass, which is called the two‐phase support (TPS) mechanism. The system can make the configuration of a TMD compact with low frictional characteristics; the TMD can operate effectively during not only earthquakes, but also strong winds in the interior of an existing building. The TPS mechanism consists of multi‐stage rubber bearings (MRBs) and linear motion bearings (LMBs). Each LMB is equipped with a vertical clearance of a few millimeters in its block portion. LMBs do not support the mass under small deformations of the MRBs so that the TMD can achieve low friction. Conversely, LMBs support the mass under large deformations of the MRBs, hence slender MRBs do not buckle and function as horizontal springs. We describe two types of experiments, namely experiments using a small specimen and tests using an actual TMD with a large mass of 7000 kN. We verified that the slender MRBs functioned without buckling and stably as restoring springs through the TPS mechanism even when large deformations occurred. Furthermore, we confirmed that the frictional and dynamic characteristics of the TMD agreed with the desired ones.

Keywords

• seismic retrofitting
• tuned mass damper
• multi‐stage rubber bearing
• linear motion bearing
• two‐phase support mechanism