Modified pendular vibration absorber for structures under base excitation

Abstract

The passive control of structures using a pendulum tuned mass damper has been extensively studied in the technical literature. As the frequency of the pendulum depends only on its length and the acceleration of gravity, to tune the frequency of the pendulum with that of the structure, the pendulum length is the only design variable. However, in many cases, the required length and the space necessary for its installation are not compatible with the design. In these cases, one can replace the classical pendulum by a virtual pendulum which consists of a mass moving over a curved surface, allowing thus for a greater flexibility in the absorber design, since the length of the pendulum becomes irrelevant and the shape of the curved surface can be optimized. A mathematical model for a building with a pendular tuned mass damper and a detailed parametric analysis is conducted to study the influence of this device on the nonlinear oscillations and stability of the main system under harmonic and seismic base excitation. In addition to the circular profiles, different curved surfaces with softening and hardening characteristics are analyzed. Also, the influence of impact on energy dissipation is considered. A detailed parametric analysis is presented showing that the proposed damper can not only reduce sharply the displacements, and consequently the internal forces in the main structure, but also the accelerations, increasing user comfort. A review of the relevant aspects is also presented.