Seismic effectiveness of tuned mass dampers for damage reduction of structures

The effectiveness of tuned mass dampers (TMD) for control of structures under seismic ground motion is investigated. Since describing the effectiveness of TMD using displacement reduction of the structure is found to be insufficient after yielding of the structure, damage reduction of the structure is proposed instead. Numerical simulations of a 20-storey reinforced concrete building modeled as an equivalent inelastic single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) system subjected to both harmonic and the 1985 Mexico City (SCT) ground motions are considered. It is demonstrated that although TMD cannot reduce the peak displacement of the controlled structure after yielding, it can significantly reduce damage to the structure. In addition, certain degrees of damage protection and collapse prevention can also be gained from the application of TMD. This is of particular significance in view of the current trend toward performance-based design in which TMD may be installed to achieve the target performance of buildings designed for seismic loads. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.