Tuned mass dampers ‐ evaluation of the effect on two real footbridges

Abstract Pedestrian comfort, subtle design, minimizing the number of fixed supports of the footbridge or material saving. These are the key arguments for integrating tuned mass dampers into the bridge project. The goal is to protect people and structure from vibrations and damage. The following paper presents findings from the design, production and tuning of mass dampers, their optimization possibilities and benefits for bridge engineering. The validity of damper design was verified on two footbridges in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It concerns the footbridge over the Svitava River in Bílovice nad Svitavou and the footbridge over the high‐speed road in Banská Bystrica. Dynamic tests including measurement were carried out on both bridges before and after the installation of the dampers. The dynamic monitoring of the compliance of modal parameters was conducted using operational modal analysis (OMA). The evaluation of the dynamic tests also includes the response to pedestrian effects (comfort criteria) and the determination of the logarithmic decrement of the damping.