Parametric study of active mass dampers for wind-excited tall buildings

Abstract

A method for selecting design parameters of active mass dampers and estimating motion reduction of wind-excited tall buildings is proposed, based on aeroelastic model tests of plain (uncontrolled) tall buildings. The alongwind, crosswind and torsional responses of two typical plain tall buildings, measured in a wind tunnel, are used to perform an extensive parametric study of the active mass damper-building system under different types of wind excitation. The results show that the wind-induced response of the plain buildings can be substantially reduced if acceleration sensors are used and parameters of the active mass damper are selected appropriately. A number of graphs are presented to show the beneficial and practical control parameters. The sensitivity study indicates that the performance of the active control system considered here is not sensitive to the small variations of structural characteristics of both building and damper, but it depends on the wind excitation type to some extent.