The Effectiveness of the Passive Damping System Combining the Viscoelastic Dampers and Inerters

Abstract

Passive damping systems are energy dissipating devices that are used in building constructions to reduce excessive vibration caused by wind or earthquakes. Recently, the use of inerters, devices using the inertia of the rotating mass, as a passive damping system has become more and more popular. Inerter, regardless of the construction, generates a resistance force that is proportional to the relative acceleration at the terminal ends of the device. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the viscoelastic (VE) dampers in combination with the inerter. For the derived equations of motion of structures with VE dampers and inerters, the Laplace transformation is applied, which leads to a nonlinear eigenproblem. The solution to the eigenproblem is obtained using the continuation method, also known as the homotopy or as the path following method. It was found that for some cases of inerter connection with ve damper, there are some additional solutions in relation to the degrees of freedom of the structure. Furthermore, the dynamic characteristics of the structure associated with the above-mentioned additional eigenvalue are strongly dependent on the equivalent inerter mass. Damping efficiency is tested by determining changes in the system’s dynamic characteristics: natural frequencies, non-dimensional damping ratios and displacement transfer functions. The presented approach allows determining the appropriate parameters of the inerter and VE damper and their appropriate location on the structures that correspond to the most effective damping. The obtained numerical results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.