DESIGN OF NEW OPTIMAL PASSIVE NON-DETUNING MASS DAMPER

In this paper a tentative manual design strategy for the ''NextGenTMD'' is proposed. The NextGenTMD is a new incarnation of Tuned Mass Dampers (TMD) passive structural control devices, introduced in a previous work of the authors. Differently from its linear counterpart version, the Linear Tuned Mass Damper (L-TMD), the NextGenTMD has a hysteretic-behaviour. In the proposed design strategy the parameters controlling the behaviour are selected so to enhance the effectiveness of the NextGenTMD by minimizing the negative effects related to the loss of tuning. This is what would normally occur for L-TMDs when the protected structure yields during a severe earthquake. The tuning problem is overcome by implementing a hysteretic version of the dynamic absorber, able to remain tuned to the primary structure despite its non-linear response. The proposed design method was applied on a simplified model of a four story building of which full scale pseudo-dynamic test results were available. The test results were used to set up a reduced numerical model of the building that was adopted in the assessment of the proposed design procedure with a set of spectrum compatible time histories, according to Eurocode 8.