Mass dampers and their optimal designs for building vibration control

The control performance of three types of mass dampers on suppressing excessive building vibration is studied and compared in this study. These mass dampers include the tuned mass damper (TMD), the tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) and the liquid column vibration absorber (LCVA). A set of generalized building-mass damper equations are established where the building is modeled as a single-degree-of-freedom system. Under a broad-band white noise excitation, a set of common formulas for the optimal properties as well as some useful design formulas for these mass dampers can be derived in closed forms for both wind and earthquake types of loading. The results show that the performance of these mass dampers depends on a parameter called efficiency index. It is shown that the larger the efficiency index the better the control performance of these mass dampers. Control efficiency among these three mass dampers is studied, compared and summarized. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved