Search Results (11)

Power transmission tower-line systems are exposed to various dynamic hazards, including wind and earthquakes, among others. Despite the multitude of dampers proposed to mitigate vibrations, the dual control effect on both seismic and wind-induced vibrations has rarely been addressed. This paper introduces a comprehensive methodology for evaluating the reliability of power transmission towers under a range of dynamic disasters, encompassing both earthquakes and wind loads. Subsequently, a lifelong reliability approach was employed to assess the efficacy of a pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD). The proposed algorithm leverages the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method to compute structural fragility with regard to each type of disaster and integrates these findings with hazard functions to determine the probability of overall failure. The results conclusively demonstrate that the PTMD substantially diminished the towers’ dynamic response to both earthquakes and wind loads, thereby enhancing their overall reliability. Specifically, the PTMD reduced the vibration reduction ratio by 10% to 30% under wind loads and by 20% to 80% under seismic actions, with more pronounced effects at higher wind speeds and peak ground accelerations (PGAs). Furthermore, the reliability index (β) of the transmission tower increased from 2.1849 to 2.4295 when the PTMD was implemented, highlighting its effectiveness in dual-hazard scenarios. This study underscores the potential for reliability to be considered as a key metric for optimizing damping devices in power transmission structures, particularly in the context of multi-hazard scenarios. Full article

Recent developments in engineered timber products, and their availability, durability, and renewability, have led to taller and more flexible buildings. However, these buildings may experience excessive vibrations, resulting in safety and serviceability issues due to wind or earthquake loads. This paper presents a dynamic analysis of a 42-story-tall hybrid-timber building, along with a comparative study of the performance of three damping devices: (i) pendulum pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD), (ii) tuned mass damper inerter (TMDI), and (iii) tuned mass damper (TMD). First, we evaluate the vibration reduction capability of the TMD and the TMDI under filtered white noise and variable frequency sinusoidal excitations. Then, we propose a robust pendulum PTMD designed using the Hertz contact law to minimize the responses under seismic excitations. For a fair comparison, the mass of the TMD, TMDI, and pendulum PTMD is kept the same. The results show that the pendulum PTMD has higher performance and can reduce the peak accelerations under earthquake loads when both TMD and TMDI fail to achieve this requirement. The superior performance of the proposed device in reducing peak accelerations relates to the reduction in damage to structural and nonstructural components under seismic loads. Nevertheless, coupling the inerter and TMD to form a TMDI may shift the optimum frequency and damping ratios, leading to reduced performance. Compared to TMD and TMDI, the proposed pendulum PTMD is more robust, with higher performance in reducing the base shear (55.7%), base moment (41%), and inter-story drift ratio (40%). The dominant capabilities of this novel device in a timber-hybrid building under different excitations reveal benefits that can shape the future of the physical infrastructure and contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation for improved disaster resilience and circular economy policies. Full article

Many engineering systems, from subsea pipelines to space structures, from moving vehicles to stationary skyscrapers, are subject to unwanted vibration excitations. Often vibration control can be considered as a problem of energy dissipation and vibration damping. The aims of this issue are to accumulate, disseminate, and promote new knowledge about vibration control, especially for topics related to energy dissipation methods for vibration damping. Topics in this issue reflect the start-of-the-arts in the field of vibration control, such as inerter dampers and pounding tuned mass dampers (PTMDs). This special issue also reports other types of new energy dissipation devices, including a multi-unit particle damper, a nonlinear eddy current damper, and layered dampers. Also reported in this issue are structural elements with innovative designs to dissipate energy. In addition, this special issue also reports two research studies on the dynamic responses of a structural foundation and an earth-retaining structure. Though most papers in this special issue are related to passive methods, one paper reports a semi-active vibration control via magnetorheological dampers (MRDs), and another two papers report active vibration controls using piezoelectric transducers and inertial actuators, respectively. Full article

In previous studies, the pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) has been successfully demonstrated to mitigate the undesired vibration of a variety of structures at room temperature. The advantages of the PTMD over the traditional tuned mass damper (TMD) has been verified through theoretical analysis and experimental investigations. However, the PTMD relies on an impact layer made of viscoelastic material to improve its vibration control performance and robustness against detuning effect. The energy dissipation of the viscoelastic material can be affected by the changes of environmental temperature. Therefore, this paper aims to study the impact damping behavior of the viscoelastic material in the low temperature environment of the sea bed where the PTMD is expected to control vibrations of subsea pipelines. The experimental apparatus fabricated in the previous study to generate and measure the lateral impact was housed inside a refrigerator. The experimental results indicate that the pounding stiffness decreased whereas the energy dissipation increased in the low temperature environment. Moreover, an impact fatigue test was also performed in the low temperature environment and compared with the room temperature case. Experimental results from a previous study show that the viscoelastic material was damaged after 36,000 cycles of impacts in the room temperature and a cyclic hardening–softening process was observed. However, in the low temperature environment, the viscoelastic material was damaged after 50,000 cycles of impacts and the cyclic hardening–softening process was not observed. As the impact cycle grew, the pounding stiffness decreased from 53,000 N/m^1.5 to 17,000 N/m^1.5 and the energy dissipation increased from 46.12 J/m per cycle to 65.4 J/m per cycle. Full article

Piping systems are important nonstructural components of most types of buildings. Damage to piping systems can lead to significant economic losses, casualties, and interruption of function. A survey of earthquake disaster sites shows that suspended piping systems are flexible and thus prone to large deformation, which can lead to serious damage of the piping systems. The single-sided pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD), which is an emerging vibration suppression tool, has the potential to serve as a cost effective and non-invasive solution for the mitigation of vibration in suspended piping systems. The operating frequency of the single-sided PTMD can be tuned similarly to a tuned mass damper (TMD). The single-side PTMD also possesses high energy dissipation characteristics and has demonstrated outstanding performance in vibration control. One of the key factors affecting the performance of the PTMD is the damping material, and there is a constant search for the ideal type of material that can increase the performance of the PTMD. This paper explores the use of shape memory alloy (SMA) sponge as the damping material for two types (spring steel and pendulum types) of PTMDs to mitigate the vibration of a suspended piping system. The PTMDs are tested both in free vibration and in forced vibration. The results are compared with no control, with a TMD control, and with a viscoelastic (VE) material PTMD control. The results show that in free vibration tests, SMA–PTMDs attenuate the displacement of the piping system significantly. The time to mitigate vibration (i.e., reduce 90% of the vibration amplitude) is reduced to 6% (for spring steel type) and 11% (for pendulum type) of the time taken to mitigate vibration without control. In forced vibration tests, the overall magnitudes of the frequency response are also lowered to 38% (spring steel) and 44% (pendulum) compared to vibration without control. The results indicate that SMA has the potential to be a promising energy dissipating material for PTMDs. Full article

Dynamic responses of highway bridges induced by wind and stochastic traffic loads usually exceed anticipated values, and tuned mass dampers (TMDs) have been extensively applied to suppress dynamic responses of bridge structures. In this study, a new type of TMD system named pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) was designed with a combination of a tuned mass and a viscoelastic layer covered delimiter for impact energy dissipation. Comprehensive numerical simulations of the wind/traffic/bridge coupled system with multiple PTMDs (MPTMDs) were performed. The coupled equations were established by combining the equations of motion of both the bridge and vehicles in traffic. For the purpose of comparing the suppressing effectiveness, the parameter study of the different numbers and locations, mass ratio, and pounding stiffness of MPTMDs were studied. The simulations showed that the number of MPTMDs and mass ratio are both significant in suppressing the wind/traffic/bridge coupled vibration; however, the pounding stiffness is not sensitive in suppressing the bridge vibration. Full article

The pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) is a novel vibration control device that can effectively mitigate the undesired vibration of subsea pipeline structures. Previous studies have verified that the PTMD is more effective and robust compared to the traditional tuned mass damper. However, the PTMD relies on a viscoelastic delimiter to dissipate energy through impact. The viscoelastic material can be corroded by the various chemical substances dissolved in the seawater, which means that there can be possible deterioration in its mechanical property and damping ability when it is exposed to seawater. Therefore, we aim to conduct an experimental study on the impact behavior and energy dissipation of the viscoelastic material submerged in seawater in this present paper. An experimental apparatus, which can generate and measure lateral impact, is designed and fabricated. A batch of viscoelastic tapes are submerged in seawater and samples will be taken out for impact tests every month. Pounding stiffness, hysteresis loops and energy dissipated per impact cycle are employed to characterize the impact behavior of the viscoelastic material. The experimental results suggest that the seawater has little influence on the behavior of the viscoelastic tapes. Even after continuous submersion in seawater for 5 years, the pounding stiffness and energy dissipation remains at the same level. Full article

Suspended piping systems often suffer from severe damages when subjected to seismic excitation. Due to the high flexibility of the piping systems, reducing their displacement is important for the prevention of damage during times of disaster. A solution to protecting piping systems during heavy excitation is the use of the emerging pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) technology. In particular, the single-sided PTMD combines the advantages of the tuned mass damper (TMD) and the impact damper, including the benefits of a simple design and rapid, efficient energy dissipation. In this paper, two single-sided PTMDs (spring steel-type PTMD and simple pendulum-type PTMD) were designed and fabricated. The dampers were tested and compared with the traditional TMD for mitigating free vibration and forced vibration. In the free vibration experiment, both PTMDs suppressed vibrations much faster than the TMD. For the forced vibration test, the frequency response of the piping system was obtained for three conditions: without control, with TMD control, and with PTMD control. These novel results demonstrate that the single-sided PTMD is a cost-effective method for efficiently and passively mitigating the vibration of suspended piping systems. Thus, the single-sided PTMD will be an important tool for increasing the resilience of structures as well as for improving the safety of their occupants. Full article

The pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) is a novel vibration control device that can be used for many different structures. The PTMD utilizes a viscoelastic delimiter to enhance its vibration control effectiveness and robustness though pounding between the tuned mass and the viscoelastic material. However, the viscoelastic material is subjected to repeated poundings during its service life, which influences the property of the material and degrades its energy dissipation ability. Therefore, this study investigates the fatigue behavior of the viscoelastic material under impact loading. An experimental apparatus, which can generate and sense the lateral impacts, is designed and fabricated to facilitate the fatigue study of the viscoelastic material subject to impact loading. Based on experimental data, the pounding stiffness and the hysteresis loops are employed to characterize the behavior of the material. It is revealed that the impact fatigue process can be divided into two phases: the cyclic-hardening phases and the cyclic-softening phase. The energy dissipation is firstly reduced, and then increased, by the repeated impacts. In summary, with a total of 360,000 impacts, the viscous elastic material is still effective in dissipating impact energy. Full article

In this paper, the two-dimensional vibration controls of a power transmission tower with a pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) under multi-component seismic excitations are analyzed. A three-dimensional finite element model of a practical power transmission tower is established in ABAQUS (Dassasult Simulia Company, Providence, RI, USA). The TMD (tuned mass damper) and PTMD are simulated by the finite element method. The response of the transmission tower with TMD and PTMD are analyzed, respectively. To achieve optimal design, the influence of the mass ratio, ground motion intensity, gap, and incident angle of seismic ground motion are investigated, respectively. The results show that the PTMD is very effective in reducing the vibration of the transmission tower in the longitudinal and transverse directions. The reduction ratio increases with the increase of the mass ratio. The ground motion intensity and gap have no obvious influence on the reduction ratio. However, the incident angle has a significant influence on the reduction ratio. Full article

A pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) is introduced by making use of the energy dissipated during impact. In the proposed PTMD, a viscoelastic layer is attached to an impact limitation collar so that energy can be further consumed and transferred to heat energy. An improved numerical model to simulate pounding force is proposed and verified through experimentation. The accuracy of the proposed model was validated against a traditional Hertz-based pounding model. A comparison showed that the improved model tends to have a better prediction of the peak pounding force. A simulation was then carried out by taking the benchmark Canton Tower, which is a super-tall structure, as the host structure. The dynamic responses of uncontrolled, TMD-controlled and PTMD controlled system were simulated under wind and earthquake excitations. Unlike traditional TMDs, which are sensitive to input excitations and the mass ratio, the proposed PTMD maintains a stable level of control efficiency when the structure is excited by different earthquake records and different intensities. Particularly, more improvement can be observed when an extreme earthquake is considered. The proposed PTMD was able to achieve similar, or even better, control effectiveness with a lower mass ratio. These results demonstrate the superior adaptability of the PTMD and its applicability for protection of a building against seismic activity. A parametric study was then performed to investigate the influence of the mass ratio and the gap value on the control efficiency. A comparison of results show that better control results will be guaranteed by optimization of the gap value. Full article