Control of Lateral‐Torsional Motion of Wind‐Excited Buildings

Abstract

An investigation is made of the possible application of an active mass damper control system to tall buildings excited by strong wind turbulence. The effectiveness of active control system, as measured by the reduction of the coupled lateral‐torsional motions of tall buildings is studied. The wind turbulence is modeled as a stochastic process that is stationary in time but non‐homogeneous in space. The problem is formulated using the transfer matrices approach, and a closed‐loop control law. The random vibration analysis is carried out to determine the statistics of the building responses, the required active control forces, and mass damper displacements. The method of Monte‐Carlo simulation is also employed to demonstrate the building response behavior with or without an active control system. A numerical example of a forty‐story building under strong wind excitations is given to illustrate the significant reduction of the building acceleration response by use of an active mass damper control system.