Simple Design Method for a Tuned Viscous Mass Damper Seismic Control System

A tuned viscous mass damper (TVMD) using a ball screw mechanism as an apparent mass amplifier has been developed. This device can provide an apparent mass that is large enough to enable effective seismic control. For a TVMD seismic control system, various design methods based on numerical optimization and spectrum modal analysis have been presented in previous studies. However, these methods require complex-valued eigenvalue problem analysis because multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) systems incorporated with TVMDs are nonproportionally damped. Because practicing structural designers are often unfamiliar with complex-valued eigenvalue analysis and numerical optimization, a simpler design method based on real-valued eigenvalue problem analysis is desirable for a practical structural design. This paper proposes such a simple design method for MDOF TVMD seismic control systems. A design example illustrates that the present method approximates the seismic response of such systems well.