1st.

Conference on Structural Dynamics (DinEst 2018)

Madrid, 20–21 June

ON THE SEARCH OF MULTIPLE TUNED MASS DAMPER

CONFIGURATIONS FOR A VIBRATION MODE WITH
CHANGING MODAL PROPERTIES

Christian A. Barrera Vargas† , José M. Soria† , Xidong Wang† , Iván M. Dı́az† , Jaime
H. Garcı́a Palacios† ,
† ETS Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
28040 Madrid, Spain
e-mail: christian.barrera.vargas@alumnos.upm.es

Abstract. The design and installation of a Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) to reduce the vibration response
level of a structure has been widely studied. This type of passive control system loses efficacy and
performance due to its detuning when the modal parameters of the structure change due to external
factors or model uncertainties. Under these circumstances, the use of several TMD, also known as multi-
tuned mass dampers (MTMD), could be a solution to be explored. However, the design of these TMDs is
not obvious: i) configuration to be adopted (several TMDs in parallel or in serie), ii) number of devices
to be considered, and iii) tuning of each single TMD parameters. Thus, this paper studies the tuning
parameters and MTMD configurations as well as their performance compared with the classical TMD
approach with the same mass ratio, in order to compare TMD configurations with the same total inertial
mass.

Key words: Vibration control; Tuned mass damper; Multiple tuned mass dampers

1 INTRODUCTION substituting the original idea of a simple degree of

Tuned Mass Dampers (TMD) are devices used
to control and cancel vibrations in structures,
which is achieved through the dissipation of energy
that provides the damping of that device when is
connected to a structure or primary system. A lot
of researches have been carried out about the de-
sign and optimization of TMDs [1]. However, as
it is well-know, TMDs suffer from detuning when
modal parameters of the structure change over time
and their performance degrade drastically. Multi-
TMDs (MTMD) and semi-active TMDs are de-
signed to reduce such detuning issue.
Zuo and Nayfeh [2] studied the use of MTMD,
freedom system with a multiple degree of freedom
system. Under this new concept, Yamaguchi and
Harnpornchai [3] studied the response of this Mul-
tiple Degree of Freedom system under Harmoni-
cally Forced Oscillations, adjusting each TMD to a
close frequency for each vibration mode of the main
structure; this feature was also studied by Xu and
Igusa in [4]. MTMDs have two presents two con-
figurations, in Parallel and in Serie and some of
these investigations were carried out by Hong and
Xiang in [5] and Zuo in [6], respectively.
In this paper, the tunning frequency necessary
for a system of MTMDs is evaluated in parallel and
in serie, and compared with a single TMD with the

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 Christian A. Barrera Vargas, José M. Soria, Xidong Wang,Iván M. Dı́az and Jaime H. Garcı́a Palacios

same inertial.

2 Multiple Tuned Mass Dampers - Parallel

and Serie

A structure that has a TMD attached, can be

considered as a system of two degrees of freedom
(figure 1), where each DOF has modal parameters
of mass (m), damping (c) and stiffness (k), while
the MTMDs are considered as a system of mul-
tiple degree of freedom, where the mathematical
problem is more complex to solve, and their behav-
ior over the main structure depends directly of the
configuration adopted, Parallel (figure 2) or Serie
(figure 3).

Figure 3: Series MTMD.

2.1 Mathematical solution

The dynamic of system with N -DOF, is defined

by the equation of motion.

M ẍ + C ẋ + Kx = F (1)

where:
Figure 1: Classical TMD
N =n+1

and n = number of TMDs

The TMDs generate inertial forces that are ex-
erted on the structure to reduce its vibration. The
Laplace domain is used here for dynamic analysis
in such a way that transfer function (TF) between
relevant magnitude are derived and analysed.

2.2 Transfer Function MTMD Parallel

The equations of motion for this configuration

(figure 2) are:

n
X
Figure 2: Parallel MTMD. mp ẍp + cp ẋp + kp xp − f ti = f (2)
i=1

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 Christian A. Barrera Vargas, José M. Soria, Xidong Wang,Iván M. Dı́az and Jaime H. Garcı́a Palacios

with i = 1, ..., n and r is (i) or (i + 1), with 1 ≤ i ≤ n

The force balance for primary mass is:
n
X
mi ẍi + f ti = 0 (3)
i=1
mp ẍp + cp ẋp + kp xp − Ft1 = f (9)
Where f ti is the force transmitted to the pri-
mary mass by TMD i:

The Laplace transform of (9) is as follows:

f ti = ci (ẋi − ẋp ) + ki (xi − xp ) (4)

The Laplace transform of (2) is as follows:

Xp (s)(s2 mp +scp +kp +sc1 +k1 )−X1 (s)(sc1 +k1 ) = F (s)
n (10)
X
2
Xp (s)(s mp +scp +kp )+ (s2 mi Ti (s)Xp (s)) = F (s)
i=1 Where the Laplace transform for each TMD is:
(5)
In which Ti (s) is the TF between TMD displace-
ment and structure displacement:
Xi+1 (s)(sci+1 + ki+1 ) + Xi−1 (s)(sci + ki )
Xi (s) =
(s2 mi + sci + ki + sci+1 + ki+1 )
Xi (s) (sci + ki )
Ti (s) = = 2
Xp (s) (s mi + sci + ki )

The TF between the primary mass movement The TF between the primary mass movement and
and the external force is derived from (s) as fol- the external force is obtained from (10):
lows:

Xp (s) 1 Xp (s) 1
= 2 = 2
(s mp + scp + kp ) + ni=1 s2 mi Ti (s) (s mp + scp + kp + sc1 + k1 ) − X1 (s)(sc1 + k1 )
P
F (s) F (s)
(6) (11)

2.3 Transfer Function MTMD Series Note that TFs (6) and (11) are the objetive TFs in
which Xp (s) should be minimized. Note also that (11)
The equations of motion for this configuration should be derived recursively from TFs of all coupled
series TMDs.
(figure 3) are :

3 Efects in Variation of Frequency Tuning

mn ẍn + Ftn = 0
mi ẍi + Fti − Fti+1 = 0
Where the force transmitted by each TMD is:
Ftr = cr (ẋr − ẋr−1 ) + kr (xr − xr−1 )
(7) Using the Den Hartog formulation to derive TMD
parameters, it is obtained a mass ratio (m) = 0.01 · mp ,
frequency (f ) = 0.995·fp , damping ratio (ζ) = 0.061 for
(8) a single TMD (figure 1). The frequency tuning for paral-
lel and serie MTMD is studied. Two parallel TMDs and
two serie TMDs are considered (n=2), with the same to-
tal mass of the single TMD: m1 = m2 = m2t , so that the
effect of f1 and f2 is studied (figure 4) and (figure 5).
The same damping ratio as the single TMD is assumed
ζ1 = ζ2 = 0.061.

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 Christian A. Barrera Vargas, José M. Soria, Xidong Wang,Iván M. Dı́az and Jaime H. Garcı́a Palacios

1.4
FRF: Structure Displacement/Input Force 4 CONCLUSIONS
Structure
1.2 Detunning - The parallel system requires for the tuning fre-
Detunning
Tunning quencies and upper and a lower value than the
1
main frequency of the structure
Magnitude (abs)

0.8
- If we increase the mass ratio, it is possible to sep-
0.6 arate the frequency of TMDs from the frequency
of the main structure, increasing the wide-band.
0.4

- The serie system for a mass ratio of 1% kg and

0.2
ζ = 0.06 in each TMD, requires a frequency tuned
0 at 1.6 · fp in each TMD, but if the damping value
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5
Frequency (Hz) change drastically, it is necessary change the tun-
ning frequency.
Figure 4: Parallel Two MTMDs (f1 < fp <
f2 )(solid),(f1 = f2 > fp )(dash),(f1 = f2 <
fp )(dash-dot) REFERENCES
[1] SAMCO “Final Report 2006 F05 Guidelines for
FRF: Structure Displacement/Input Force
Structural Control ”
1.4
Structure [2] Zuo Lei and Nayfeh 2002 “Design of Mult - Degree
Detunning
1.2
Tunning
-of - Freedom Tuned - Mass Dampers: A Minmax
1
Aprroach ”43td AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC
Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials
Magnitude (abs)

0.8 Conference, AIAA Paper No 2002-1283

0.6 [3] Yamaguchi, H., and Harpornchai, N., 1993, “Fun-
0.4
damental Characteristics of Multiple Tuned Mass
Dampers for suppressing Harmonically Forced Oscil-
0.2 lations, ”Earthquake Eng. Struct Dyn., 22,pp 51-62.
0
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5
[4] Xu, K., and Igusa, T., 1992, “Dynamic Character-
Frequency (Hz) istics of Multiple Substructures With Closely Spaced
Frequencies, ”Earthquake Eng. Struct Dyn., 21,pp
Figure 5: Series Two MTMDs (f1 = f2 >
1059-1070.
fp )(solid),(f1 = f2 < fp )(dash)
[5] Hong-Nan and Xiang-Lei 2007, “Optimization
After obtaining the criteria to tune the frequency, of non-uniformly distributed multiple tuned mass
it is observed the behavior compared with a classical damper ”Journal of Sound and Vibration 308 (2007)
TMD 80-97.
[6] Zuo, Lei., 2009, “Effective and Robust Vibration
FRF: Structure Displacement/Input Force
1.4 Control Using Series Multiple Tuned Mass Dampers,
Structure
1.2 TMD
”Journal of Vibration and acoustics.
Parallel 2TMD
Serie 2TMD
1
Magnitude (abs)

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5
Frequency (Hz)

Figure 6: Classical TMD, Parallel Two MT-

MDs and Serie Two MTMDs