Proposed robust tuned mass damper for response mitigation in buildings exposed to multidirectional wind

The most common device for control of tall buildings under wind loads is the tuned mass damper (TMD). However, during their lifetimes, high-rise and slender buildings may experience natural frequency changes under wind speed, ambient temperatures and relative humidity variations, among other factors, which make the TMD design challenging. In this paper, a proposed approach for the design of robust TMDs is presented and investigated. The approach accounts for structural uncertainties, optimization objectives and input excitation (wind or earthquake). For the use of TMDs in buildings, practical design parameters can be different from the optimum ones. Nevertheless, predetermined optimal parameters for a primary structure with uncertainties are useful to attain design robustness. To illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach, an example of a very slender building with uncertain natural frequencies is presented. The building represents a case study of an engineered design that is instructive. Basically, due to its geometry, the building behaves differently in one lateral direction (cantilever building) than the other (shear building). The proposed approach shows its robustness and effectiveness in reducing the response of tall buildings under multidirectional wind loads. In addition, linear-quadratic Gaussian and fuzzy logic controllers enhanced the performance of the TMD. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.