Softening and hardening tuned mass dampers

Abstract

Reducing response of buildings during earthquakes by mass dampers, has been examined in many articles and books. Nowadays, many researchers are trying to realistically examine this type of dampers by new methods of performance. In this paper, for the better study of tuned mass damper (TMD), two schematic models are presented for a passive TMD with softening stiffness (softening TMD) and a passive TMD with hardening stiffness (hardening TMD). Then by modeling and analysis of the damper on a single degree of freedom (SDOF) structure and an 11-story steel building, the dampers performance was evaluated. State space was used for damper and structure modeling and to solve nonlinear equations, the Newton-Raphson method was used. The results show that when the structure is subjected to the Chi-Chi earthquake, response of the sixth floor in the system without TMD reduces 54.0% in comparison to the structure with softening TMD. This percentage of reduction for hardening TMD is 55.0%. Also for the Tabas earthquake, reduction in the RMS acceleration of the sixth floor in the system with hardening TMD is 96.2% more than the structure without TMD. This percentage of reduction for hardening TMD is 96.3%.