VIBRATION CONTROL IN A GERBER BEAM USING TUNED MASS DAMPERS

One of the most common strategies in structural control is the installation of Tuned Mass Dampers (TMD). A TMD basically consists of a mass, a spring and a damper which are connected to the structure. Its frequency can be tuned to a particular value with the objective of making the damper absorb part of the input energy, decreasing the structural peak response caused by the dynamic load. The present paper analyzes numerically, with the help of the software ANSYS, the most efficient number and position of Tuned Mass Dampers attached to a metallic Gerber beam. TMD's properties are designed according to Den Hartog's and Jangid's expressions. The obtained results demonstrated reductions in the beam's dynamic maximum response above of 80% in the cases where the excitation was harmonic and above 45% in the case that the applied load in the beam was a random load white noise load.