Quantum mechanics

Inertance

Damper

Control (management)

Tuned mass damper

Engineering

Displacement (psychology)

Vibration control

Tube (container)

Base isolation

Vibration

Computer science

Acoustics

Classical mechanics

Mechanical engineering

Physics

Nonlinear system

Psychology

Mathematics

Random vibration

Psychotherapist

Mathematical analysis

Artificial intelligence

Structural engineering

Acceleration

Control theory (sociology)

Dissipative system

Base (topology)

Frame (networking)

Journal of the Franklin Institute

This work studies the advantageous features of the fluid inerter device for optimised structural control of buildings. Experimental data are first presented to characterise the fluid inerter dynamics, and validate the simplified analytical formulations. Building on these observations, the device is modelled as an inerter in parallel with a nonlinear dashpot representing a power law damping term. The latter dissipative effects are mainly induced by the pressure drops occurring in helical channels due to the fluid viscosity and density. Then, novel passive vibration control schemes are implemented for the earthquake protection of base-isolated buildings by combining the fluid inerter with a tuned mass damper system. To account for the uncertain nature of the earthquake input, the base acceleration is modelled as a Kanai–Tajimi filtered stationary random process. The optimal fluid inerter parameters, namely inertance and damping, are identified numerically by minimising stochastic performance indices relevant to displacement, acceleration, and energy-based measures of the structural response. The nonlinear damping behaviour of the fluid inerter is fully incorporated in the optimal design procedure via the statistical linearisation technique. Nonlinear response history analysis under an ensemble of 44 natural earthquake ground motions is carried out to assess the seismic performance of the system. Since inertance and damping are coupled characteristics in a real fluid inerter, design guidelines are finally outlined to determine the actual geometrical and mechanical properties of the device to achieve targeted parameters resulting from the optimisation procedure.

Novel fluid inerter based tuned mass dampers for optimised structural control of base-isolated buildings