• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.49-61
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• 2020

This paper proposes a novel high performance vibration control device, multiple tuned mass dampers-inerters (MTMDI), to suppress the oscillatory motions of structures. The MTMDI, similar to the MTMD, involves multiple tuned mass damper-inerter (TMDI) units. In order to reveal the basic performance of the MTMDI, it is installed on a single degree-of-freedom (SDOF) structure excited by the ground acceleration, and the dynamic magnification factors (DMF) of the structure-MTMDI system are formulated. The optimization criterion is determined as the minimization of maximum values of the relative displacement's DMF for the controlled structure. Based on the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to tune the optimum parameters of the MTMDI, its performance has been investigated and evaluated in terms of control effectiveness, strokes, stiffness and damping coefficient, inerter element force, and robustness in frequency domain. Meanwhile, further comparison between the MTMDI with MTMD has been conducted. Numerical results clearly demonstrate the MTMDI outperforms the MTMD in control effectiveness and strokes of mass blocks. Additionally, in the aspects of frequency perturbations on both earthquake excitations and structures, the robustness of the MTMDI is also better than the MTMD.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.6
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• pp.747-762
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• 2019

Based on the ball-screw mechanism, a tuned viscous mass damper (TVMD) has been proposed, which has functions of amplifying physical mass of the system and frequency tuning. Considering the sensitivity of a single TVMD's effectiveness to frequency mistuning like that of the conventional tuned mass damper (TMD) and according to the concept of the conventional multiple tuned mass damper (MTMD), in the present paper, multiple tuned mass viscous dampers (MTVMD) consisting of many tuned mass dampers (TVMD) with a uniform distribution of natural frequencies are considered for attenuating undesirable vibration of a structure. The MTVMD is manufactured by keeping the stiffness and damping constant and varying the mass associated with the lead of the ball-screw type inerter element in the damper. The structure is represented by its mode-generalized system in a specific vibration mode controlled using the mode reduced-order method. Modal properties and fundamental characteristics of the MTVMD-structure system are investigated analytically with the parameters, i.e., the frequency band, the average damping ratio, the tuning frequency ratio, the total number of TVMD and the total mass ratio. It is found that there exists an optimum set of the parameters that makes the frequency response curve of the structure flattened with smaller amplitudes in a wider input frequency range. The effectiveness and robustness of the MTVMD are also discussed in comparison with those of the usual single TVMD (STVMD) and the results shows that the MTVMD is more effective and robust with the same level of total mass.