Passive Vibration Suppression Using Multiple Inerter-based Devices for a Multi-storey Building Structure

This paper investigates the application of multiple passive absorbers incorporating inerter(s), spring(s) and damper(s) to suppress vibrations in a multi-story structure. Different from the one terminal mass element, the inerter was proposed as a two-terminal element, with the property that the applied force is proportional to the relative acceleration across its terminals. The device can be configured to include gearing, hence allowing a far higher inertence than device mass. The advantage of using aTID as a suppression device mounted at the bottom of a multi-storey building has been identified. In this paper, a five-storey building model with two TIDs subjected to the base excitation is studied. Both of the these devices are located at the bottom. The criterion selected for the optimisation is the minimisation of the maximum relative displacement of the building. Further more, the resulting structural responses are compared to the case where a single TID is used at the bottom, to show the potential benefits that arise from using multiple devices. In addition, we show that the resulting optimal inertance needed for each device is smaller compared to the case where a single TID is used between the ground and the first floor, which makes the suppression system easier to manufacture.