Wind-Induced Response Control of High-Rise Buildings Using Inerter-Based Vibration Absorbers

The beneficial mass-amplification effect induced by the inerter can be conveniently used in enhanced variants of the traditional Tuned Mass Damper (TMD), namely the Tuned Mass-Damper-Inerter (TMDI) and its special case of Tuned Inerter Damper (TID). In this paper, these inerter-based vibration absorbers are studied for mitigating the wind-induced response of high-rise buildings, with particular emphasis on a 340 m tall building analyzed as case study. To adopt a realistic wind-excitation model, the analysis is based on aerodynamic forces computed through experimental wind tunnel tests for a scaled prototype of the benchmark building, which accounts for the actual cross-section of the structure and the existing surrounding conditions. Mass and stiffness parameters are extracted from the finite element model of the primary structure. Performance-based optimization of the TMDI and the TID is carried out to find a good trade-off between displacement- and acceleration-response mitigation, with the installation floor being an explicit design variable in addition to frequency and damping ratio. The results corresponding to 24 different wind directions indicate that the best vibration mitigation is achieved with a lower installation floor of the TMDI/TID scheme than the topmost floor. The effects of different parameters of TMD, TMDI and TID on wind-induced displacement and acceleration responses and on the equivalent static wind loads (ESWLs) are comparatively evaluated. It is shown that the optimally designed TMDI/TID can achieve better wind-induced vibration mitigation than the TMD while allocating lower or null attached mass, especially in terms of acceleration response.