Experimental Analysis of the TMD Control of Building Vibrations against Earthquake Excitations

Basic dynamic characteristics of a 1:12 scaled experimental model of a 4 stories 3-D steel frame are obtained using different methods. The frequency sweep method is used to calculate the modal damping ratio and mode shapes of the frame. The optimal values of the TMD different parameters are evaluated using try and error method. Then the associated TMD system is constructed and installed on the top story andthe model is tested under support harmonic excitation.The experimentally measured results of the model frame under resonant harmonic support excitationshow the significant effectiveness of the proposed TMD system in reducing the model frame response.The above model is also analytically examined under 23 world-wide earthquake accelerogrames with different level of frequency content.