Assessment of a seismic tuned mass damper with friction fail-safe mechanism for the vibration control of high-rise buildings

This study proposes a method for mounting a tuned mass damper (TMD) at the top of a high-rise building through a fail-safe (FS) mechanism using a friction device to protect against strong earthquakes, such as those with long-period, long-duration ground motions. The control effect by the TMD with the proposed friction FS mechanism in single-degree-of-freedom and 30-degrees-of-freedom (30DOF) building models was numerically investigated by an earthquake response simulation. Also, the response for the same building models with TMDs incorporating different FS mechanisms (a bilinear viscous type and a displacement-dependent hardening type), TMDs with no FS mechanism, and no seismic protection (uncontrolled case) was examined for comparison. The obtained results demonstrated that use of the proposed friction FS mechanism prevents the TMD from operating beyond its design displacement limit; thus, this system avoids damage due to the TMD falling or colliding. Moreover, the proposed friction FS mechanism generally showed the most promising control effects among all 30DOF building models with TMD incorporating FS mechanism regarding the peak response of the TMD displacement and the building roof acceleration and displacement.