Optimal Specifications of Inertial Mass Damper Used for Building Connection System

A vibration control system using building connection is one of the most popular methods in passive structural control of building structures. Most of the previous researches on this subject deal with buildings connected by steel dampers or oil dampers. There is a limited number of papers which deal with buildings connected by inertial mass dampers (IMD). It is well known that IMD has some advantageous properties, i.e. an input reduction effect, a lengthening effect of natural period and a tuning damping effect. While IMD between two buildings does not have the input reduction property, the response of a building with longer natural period can be reduced more effectively than the building connecting by steel dampers or oil dampers due to the lengthening property of natural period and the tuning damping effect. However, many previous researches are based on the frequency-domain formulation using a two-mass connection model and the effects of higher modes and connection height are not always taken into consideration. In addition, there is no research focusing on the energy characteristics of buildings connected by IMD. We propose a substructure tuned-mass-damper (TMD) connection damping system in this paper. In this system, the substructure vibration is synchronized with the main structure by connecting with IMD. It may be difficult to reduce the response transfer function from the height of the so-called fixed point by connecting with oil dampers. On the contrary, it may be possible to reduce the height of the fixed point by connecting with IMD.