Innovative Tuned Liquid Damper System

Abstract

<p>This paper introduces a damper system developed by Thornton Tomasetti in collaboration with NASA to mitigate wind-induced vibrations in buildings. The system relies on multiple masses of water contained in separate pipes that can be tuned individually to resonate at different frequencies. Each pipe is tuned with an air spring that controls both the stiffness and damping of the water mass, allowing for substantial adjustments of the system properties after installation and throughout the lifetime of the building. In addition to being more flexible than traditional tuned-mass dampers, the proposed system can be made of low-cost components and offers a number of practical advantages, such as having a distributed mass that results in lower loads imposed on the building structure. A prototype of the system is being implemented on a 32-story residential building in New York.</p>