Optimal Design of Tuned Mass Damper for Base-Excited Structures

Abstract The tuned mass damper (TMD) is a well-established vibration control device that has been implemented in several structures worldwide. The performance of passive TMD is greatly dependent on its design parameters. A key issue for the design of the optimal TMD is the identification of the parameters of the structure to which the TMD is to be attached. Here, it is important also to consider the perturbations that may arise in the structural frequency due to different practical issues. The present work focusses on this and aims to obtain the optimum TMD parameters in a Genetic Algorithm (GA) framework. The results of the proposed optimal strategy, in terms of optimal tuning ratio and optimal damping ratio, for a given value of the mass ratio, are compared with some of the existing optimal solutions for linear TMD under base excitation. The effectiveness of all these optimally designed TMDs in reducing the structural response is further demonstrated when the structure-TMD system is subjected to recorded earthquake ground motions. It is seen that in the tuned condition, the control performance obtained by the different designs of the TMD are similar to each other, although having some minor differences in the values of the optimum parameters. Also, the effectiveness of the different TMD designs in the detuned condition is investigated, in which the present design technique is found to be the most effective.