Damping Enhancement-Based Analytical Optimization and Performance Evaluation of Tuned Viscous Rotating Mass Damper for Seismic Protection

Inerter systems for passive vibration control offer notable advantages such as being lightweight and delivering high performance. However, the full potential for vibration mitigation in inerter-based dampers, particularly those incorporating additional inertia amplification mechanisms, remains underexplored. In this work, the analytical dynamic model for the tuned viscous rotating mass damper (TVRMD) which is equipped with a double-flywheels mechanism is established, and the closed-form optimal expressions based on the damping enhancement principle (DEP) are derived, achieving more significant deformation enhancement of the damping element. These optimal solutions also provide an efficient and straightforward parameter design method. The vibration mitigation and damping efficiency of the TVRMD are compared with the traditional tuned viscous mass damper (TVMD) via performance evaluations for both Single-Degree-of-Freedom (SDOF) and Multi-Degree-of-Freedom (MDOF) structures equipped with TVRMD. To be more specific, increasing the amplification ratio improves frequency-domain displacement responses and enhances energy dissipation, broadening the frequency range of control forces in the TVRMD. For seismic response control of typical MDOF structures, the TVRMD effectively reduces displacement, acceleration, and base shear force simultaneously in a specific target mode compared to the traditional TVMD. However, excessively increasing [Formula: see text] to improve vibration mitigation performance is not a reasonable strategy and the reasonable range for the value of [Formula: see text] could be 2–3 for a given specific mass ratio. Unlike the mass enhancement effect of traditional inerter systems, the increase in TVRMD control force is attributed to the combined benefits of the amplification mechanism and deformation enhancement of viscous damper, enabling dual improvement in both the control frequency domain and control force while maintaining the same mass ratio as the TVMD.