Proposal for an Efficient Damping System for High-Rise Buildings in Major Earthquakes

Abstract

Recent vibration resistant designs for buildings in Japan often adopt a vibration control structure with dampers arranged in the framework. Generally, the dampers are arranged in the building’s core in a geometry that works most effectively to protect against story shearing deformation. It is already known, however, that the above-mentioned arrangement of dampers does not provide good damping effects for the upper stories of high-rise buildings with large aspect ratios, because the protection mechanism is designed to decrease the shearing deformation components of the building’s horizontal deformation caused by its horizontal loads. A new type of dampers, called force-restricted tuned viscous mass dampers (FRTVMD), has been recently developed for such circumstances, amplifying the deformation of viscous dampers with their tuned mass effects. This paper, therefore, first presents a tuned mass damper (TMD) system, effective for high-rise buildings with large aspect ratios against great earthquakes, and then proposes a new vibration control structural system capable of generating better damping effects with FRTVMD. In addition, we review its characteristics and effects by analyzing its vibration response, as well as verify that a combined use of such vibration control structural systems will generate far greater damping effects than an individual system.