Many kinds of dampers are invented to reduce the dynamic responses due to earthquake or strong wind. Viscoelastic damper is a kind of commonly used passive control device for vibration mitigation of structures. Its energy dissipation characteristics are affected by environmental temperature and excitation frequency. In order to describe the complex characteristics of viscoelastic dampers changing with temperature and frequency, a new model — the equivalent standard solid model, which is based on the standard linear solid model and temperature-frequency equivalent theory, is proposed. The comparison results between experimental and numerical data of viscoelastic dampers show that the equivalent standard solid model can precisely describe energy dissipation behavior of viscoelastic dampers under different temperatures and frequencies. At the same time, 52 viscoelastic dampers are applied for seismic retrofit design on Xi’an Petrol Hotel, and the finite analysis for structures with and without dampers are carried out under frequent-earthquake and infrequent-earthquake excitations. The dynamic responses of structures with and without dampers are compared. Analytical results show that viscoelastic dampers can reduce the earthquake responses effectively, and they are high-performance energy dissipation devices.

Wind is a key factor when determining the safety of high-rise structures, such as buildings, chimneys, or towers. Using dampers to control wind-induced vibration is a safe, effective, and economical method for high-rise structures to employ. In this paper, viscoelastic dampers (VEDs) were used to reduce the dynamic responses of a 75-metre-high chimney. First, a simulation method for the stochastic wind field, based on the modified Fourier spectrum, was proposed. The method provided the accurate data of the wind velocity time history, which then simulated wind pressure through the use of a numerical wind tunnel. Then, the finite element model for the Madagascar chimney structure was built, and a wind-induced vibration analysis of the structure with and without VEDs was carried out under the simulated wind excitation. The optimisation -method, based on the genetic algorithm, was used to optimise the location of the VEDs. It was concluded that the accuracy of the modified Fourier spectrum method (MFSM) was greatly improved, when compared to the spectrum representation method of simulating the stochastic wind field. VEDs can effectively reduce the dynamic responses of chimney towers, especially for the displacement responses. In addition, the proposed optimisation method quickly determined the optimum positions and necessary quantities of VEDs to use, which yielded effective vibration mitigation.