Abstract The tuned mass damper (TMD) is a well-known and approved concept for resonance vibration control. However, as a fully passive device, the traditional TMD has a limited operating band and rather poor robustness against parameter variations. To overcome these weaknesses, a semi-active control can be applied to TMD. As a result, a more effective and flexible device can be attained. In theory, the application of the semi-active scheme is straightforward and the gain in performance is considerable. In practice, however, the non-idealities associated with actuators and control systems degrade the performance. In this thesis, the dynamic behaviour of a semi-active TMD with groundhook control was studied both numerically and experimentally. The semi-active scheme studied is based on groundhook control and a dry-friction damper is used as an actuator in rapid damping modulation. The performance of the semi-active TMD was evaluated in terms of two performance indices which are calculated from the normalised displacement response in the frequency domain. Also, parametric studies were conducted to find out how the different parameters influence the system performance. It is shown that the non-idealities in the semi-active damper have a significant influence on the performance of a groundhook controlled semi-active TMD. On the basis of simulations, a new parameterised semi-active control method was developed. The method is treated as a generalised groundhook control, and it involves a parameter through which the dynamic behaviour of a semi-active TMD can be affected both online and offline. The new method does not require an actuator model. The method developed opens the way for effective use of a non-ideal semi-active actuator, thus ensuring the good performance of the semi-active TMD. Also, the semi-active TMD’s sensitivity for certain parameter variation decreases considerably.

With growing awareness of climate change and an increased interest in renewable energy, resources like offshore wind are projected to grow in the near future. One key issue within offshore wind is how to stabilize the floating system when it experiences large wind and wave forces that impact its performance and shorten its operating life. Researchers have been exploring structural control methods and creating modeling tools to evaluate the performance of the control methods. One such tool is OpenFAST, the industry standard for modeling wind turbine dynamics, and the goal of this paper is to build upon the existing capabilities of OpenFAST. Inerter-based structural control methods offer arguably better performance than traditional vibration absorbers, and the configuration proposed in this paper also offers the ability to use a generator as an element in the structural controller. This allows extra energy to be generated along with the improvement in vibration absorption. Through this study, this inerter-based control method is explored through the lens of an established modeling tool to provide the validation for the model to explore which load cases the inerter performs best in and what design considerations must be made. In addition, the energy harvesting potential of the inerter system is evaluated and shown to increase the system's capabilities especially under stormy ocean conditions. / Master of Science / With growing awareness of climate change and an increased interest in renewable energy, resources like offshore wind are projected to grow in the near future. One key issue within offshore wind is how to stabilize the floating system when it experiences large wind and wave forces which impact its performance and shorten its lifespan. Researchers have been exploring several methods and creating modeling tools to evaluate the performance of control methods. One such tool is OpenFAST, the industry standard for modeling wind turbine dynamics, and the goal of this paper is to build upon the existing capabilities of OpenFAST. Structural control methods based on an element called an inerter offer arguably better performance than traditional vibration absorbers. The design in this paper also offers the ability to use an electrical generator as an element in the structural controller. This allows extra energy to be generated along with the reduced vibrations. Through this study, this inerter-based control method is explored through the lens of an established modeling tool to provide validation for the model. Another goal is to explore which scenarios the inerter performs best and what design considerations must be made for future development. In addition, the energy harvesting potential of the inerter system is evaluated and shown to increase the system's capabilities.

The purpose of this research is to establish the effectiveness of tuned-mass-dampers (TMD) using semi-active magneto-rheological (MR) dampers to mitigate annoying floor vibrations. Annoying floor vibration is becoming more common in today's building structures since building materials have become stronger and lighter; the advent of computers has resulted in "paperless" offices; and the use of floors for rhythmic activities, such as aerobics and concerts, is more common. Analytical and experimental studies were conducted to provide an understanding of the effects of incorporating the semi-active-TMD as a remedy to annoying floor vibration. A pendulum tuned mass damper (PTMD) in which the tuning parameters could independently be varied was used. Closed form solutions for the response of the floor using passive dampers were developed. In addition, a numerical integration technique was used to solve the equations of motion where semi-active dampers are utilized. The optimum design parameters of PTMDs using passive and semi-active dampers were found using an optimization routine. Performances of the PTMD in reducing the floor vibration level at the optimum and when subjected to off-tuning of design parameters using passive and semi-active dampers were compared. To validate the results obtained in the analytical investigation, an experimental study was conducted using an 8 ft x 30 ft laboratory floor and a commercial PTMD. Comparative studies of the effectiveness of the PTMD in reducing floor vibrations using semi-active and passive dampers were conducted. / Master of Science

Esta dissertação propõe uma solução padronizada de aplicação de Tuned-Mass Damper (TMD) para controle de vibrações em lajes baseada na análise das características de carregamentos associados à utilização humana e nas características estruturais mais comuns à engenharia contemporânea. De modo a simplificar sua aplicação técnica, a sintonização é proposta por meio da escolha de componentes pré-determinados para a montagem do TMD e pela distribuição e posicionamento dos mecanismos. A eficácia do sistema é então verificada em um estudo de caso, usando um modelo de elementos finitos de uma laje, antes e depois da aplicação dos mecanismos. / This thesis proposes a standardized solution for the application of Tuned-Mass Dampers to the control of floor vibrations based on the characteristics of the acting loads associated to human usage and the characteristics of the most common structures of the contemporary engineering practice. In order to simplify its usage by the technical community, the tuning is proposed through the selection of pre-determined components for the assembly of the TMD and the choice of disposition and spacing of the mechanisms. The system efficacy is then verified in a computational case study, by means of a finite-element model of a floor, before and after the application of the mechanisms.

Esta dissertação propõe uma solução padronizada de aplicação de Tuned-Mass Damper (TMD) para controle de vibrações em lajes baseada na análise das características de carregamentos associados à utilização humana e nas características estruturais mais comuns à engenharia contemporânea. De modo a simplificar sua aplicação técnica, a sintonização é proposta por meio da escolha de componentes pré-determinados para a montagem do TMD e pela distribuição e posicionamento dos mecanismos. A eficácia do sistema é então verificada em um estudo de caso, usando um modelo de elementos finitos de uma laje, antes e depois da aplicação dos mecanismos. / This thesis proposes a standardized solution for the application of Tuned-Mass Dampers to the control of floor vibrations based on the characteristics of the acting loads associated to human usage and the characteristics of the most common structures of the contemporary engineering practice. In order to simplify its usage by the technical community, the tuning is proposed through the selection of pre-determined components for the assembly of the TMD and the choice of disposition and spacing of the mechanisms. The system efficacy is then verified in a computational case study, by means of a finite-element model of a floor, before and after the application of the mechanisms.

Over the past decade, offshore wind has positioned itself as one of the most promising renewable energy markets. While this field is currently dominated by fixed-bottom wind turbines located within a limited depth range, floating turbines are showing promise as a way to capture the more developed wind profiles available in deeper waters. Currently, the main challenge with floating offshore wind is that the systems experience larger ultimate loads compared to fixed bottom turbines. These larger loads are caused by the increased motion inherent with floating structures. This study looks to analyze the effects that traditional and inerter based structural control methods can have on vibration reduction of floating offshore wind turbines. Models are developed adding tuned mass dampers (TMD) and tuned inerter dampers (TID) into the three main columns of a semisubmersible platform. Results showed that for free decay tests, heave and pitch root mean square (RMS) values were reduced significantly by the addition of passive structural control. The inerter based structural control consistently outperformed traditional TMD and also allowed for similar performance with significantly reduced physical mass values. For regular wave excitation both control methods resulted in significant reductions to the heave and pitch RMS values compared to the baseline, with the TID outperforming the TMD . And for an irregular wave analysis, it was found that both control configurations were still able to provide meaningful reductions to the baseline model. / Master of Science / Over the past decade, offshore wind has positioned itself as one of the most promising renewable energy markets. While this field is currently dominated by fixed-bottom wind turbines located within a limited depth range, floating turbines are showing promise as a way to capture the more developed wind profiles available in deeper waters. Currently, the main challenge with floating offshore wind is that the systems experience larger ultimate loads compared to fixed bottom turbines. These larger loads are caused by the increased motion inherent with floating structures. This study looks to analyze the effects that traditional and enhanced motion reduction technology can have on floating offshore wind turbines. Models are developed adding the traditional and enhanced motion reduction technology into the three main columns of a semisubmersible platform. Results showed that for several different tests, the motion reduction technology has a positive effect on the turbines. For test dropping the system from a set height, the motion reduction technology allowed the system to come to rest much faster. Moreover, the enhanced technology performed better than the traditional technology. The same results were found when the system was excited by simulated waves.

Auxiliary absorbers provide an effective means to attenuate the vibrations of a structural or mechanical system (the "primary structure"). The simplest auxiliary absorber, a tuned mass damper (TMD), provides reliable narrow-band attenuation but is not robust to the effects of detuning. Strongly nonlinear tuned mass dampers (NTMDs) are capable of wide-band, irreversible energy transfer known as "energy pumping" but can also exhibit high amplitude solutions which significantly amplify the response of the primary structure. Semi-active tuned mass dampers (STMDs) incorporate an actuating element in order to achieve real-time tuning adjustment capability. This thesis presents a global dynamic analysis of the response of a primary structure with an NTMD and then explores the performance of a novel absorber configuration consisting of an NTMD and STMD attached to the primary structure in series. The global dynamic analysis is conducted using a new cell mapping method developed by the author and introduced within the thesis: the parallelized multi-degrees-of-freedom cell mapping (PMDCM) method. The benefits of the additional STMD component are explored for two distinct applications: (1) restoring the performance of a linear TMD which develops a weak nonlinearity due to operation outside of the intended range or other means, and (2) acting as a safety device to eliminate or minimize convergence to the detached high-amplitude response. In the weakly nonlinear case, the STMD is shown to reduce the effects of the nonlinearity and improve attenuation capability by constraining the motion of the NTMD. In the strongly nonlinear case, the STMD effectively eliminates the complex response behavior and high amplitude solutions which were present in the original system, resulting in a single low amplitude response. Experimental tests using an adjustable-length pendulum STMD verify the numerical results.

Tuned mass dampers (TMDs) are auxiliary damping devices installed within tall structures to reduce undesirable wind-induced vibrations and to enhance the overall system damping and hence, the dissipative capacity. The design of TMDs involves the selection of optimal auxiliary mass, frequency, and damping, based on the main structure's mass, natural frequency and damping properties. TMDs are inherently susceptible to detuning, where the auxiliary parameters are no longer optimal due to deterioration or changes within the system, resulting in a degradation in their performance. In order to correct for this detuning, it is necessary to perform a condition assessment while the TMDs are in service. The main goal of this thesis is to present a methodology to conduct condition assessment while the TMDs are in service. The proposed methodology does not involve either restraining the TMD or providing controlled external excitation to the structure, and relies on ambient measurements only. The first phase in the condition assessment is to estimate the bare structure's modal properties using acceleration measurements obtained from the structure while the TMDs are unrestrained. The present work accomplishes this goal within the framework of parametric identification using Kalman filtering, where the unknown parameters (bare modal properties) are appended to the state vector and estimated. Unlike most of the literature on this subject, the noise statistics for the filter are not assumed to be known a priori. They are estimated from the measurements and incorporated into the filter equations. This filter involves direct feedthrough of the process noise in the measurement equation and the appropriate filter is derived and used following the noise covariance estimation step. In the next phase, criteria to assess the condition of the TMD are developed. They include optimal tuning parameters established using simulated experiments and measured equivalent viscous damping. The research considered pendulum tuned mass dampers (PTMDs), which presently account for a large fraction of full-scale applications. Results were demonstrated using numerical investigations, a bench-scale model equipped with an adaptive mechanism for adjusting auxiliary damper parameters, and a full-scale PTMD-equipped structure. The main contributions of this thesis are: (a) a broader understanding of the coupled biaxial behaviour of PTMDs has been developed; (b) a systematic procedure for estimating the underlying modal characteristics of the structure from ambient vibration measurements within the framework of Kalman filtering has been achieved; (c) a comprehensive framework to undertake condition assessment of TMDs has been presented, integrating parametric identification from measured response data and performance prediction for design period wind events using boundary layer wind tunnel studies. The work provided new insight into the design and behaviour of PTMDs and presented a comprehensive approach to quantify their performance. The Kalman filtering framework also provides an efficient platform to build adaptive passive tuned mass dampers that can be tuned in place and adjusted to correct for detuning and accommodate various operating conditions.

Vortex-induced vibrations of a pivoted circular cylinder and control of these vibrations were investigated experimentally. A novel experimental setup was employed to reproduce orbiting response observed in some engineering applications. An adaptive pendulum tuned-mass damper (TMD) was integrated with the cylindrical structure in order to control the vortex-induced vibrations. All experiments were performed at a constant Reynolds number of 2100 for a range of reduced velocities from 3.4 to 11.3 and damping ratios from 0.004 to 0.018. For the experiments involving TMD, the TMD mass ratio was 0.087 and the TMD damping ratios investigated were 0 and 0.24. The results of the experiments performed without the TMD show that, in the synchronization region, the frequencies of transverse and streamwise vibrations lock onto the natural frequency of the structure. The cylinder is observed to trace elliptic trajectories. A mathematical model is introduced to investigate the mechanism responsible for the occurrence of the observed elliptic trajectories and figure-8 type trajectories reported in previous laboratory investigations. The results show that the occurrence of either elliptic trajectories or figure-8 type trajectories is governed primarily by structural coupling between vibrations in streamwise and transverse directions. Four types of elliptic trajectories were identified. The results show that the occurrence of the different types of elliptic trajectories is linked to phase angle between the streamwise and transverse vibrations of the structure, which depends on structural coupling. The results of the experiments performed to investigate effectiveness of the TMD in controlling vortex-induced vibrations show that tuning the TMD natural frequency to the natural frequency of the structure decreases significantly the amplitudes of transverse and streamwise vibrations of the structure. Specifically, the transverse amplitudes of vibrations are decreased by a factor of ten and streamwise amplitudes of vibrations are decreased by a factor of three. The results show that, depending on the value of the TMD damping ratio, the frequency of transverse vibrations is either characterized by the natural frequency or by two frequencies: one higher and the other lower than the natural frequency of the structure, referred to as fundamental frequencies. Independent of TMD damping and tuning frequency ratios, the frequency of streamwise vibrations matches that of the transverse vibrations in the synchronization region, and the cylinder traces elliptic trajectories. The phase angle between the streamwise and transverse vibrations is nearly constant when the pendulum is restrained. However, with the TMD engaged and tuned to the natural frequency, the phase angle fluctuates significantly with time. A mathematical model was utilized to gain insight into the frequency response of the structure. The results of the modeling show that the frequency of transverse vibrations is characterized by the fundamental frequency or frequencies of the structure and the frequency of streamwise vibrations is characterized by the fundamental frequency or frequencies as well as the first harmonic of the fundamental frequency or frequencies of the structure.

Vortex-induced vibrations of a pivoted circular cylinder and control of these vibrations were investigated experimentally. A novel experimental setup was employed to reproduce orbiting response observed in some engineering applications. An adaptive pendulum tuned-mass damper (TMD) was integrated with the cylindrical structure in order to control the vortex-induced vibrations. All experiments were performed at a constant Reynolds number of 2100 for a range of reduced velocities from 3.4 to 11.3 and damping ratios from 0.004 to 0.018. For the experiments involving TMD, the TMD mass ratio was 0.087 and the TMD damping ratios investigated were 0 and 0.24. The results of the experiments performed without the TMD show that, in the synchronization region, the frequencies of transverse and streamwise vibrations lock onto the natural frequency of the structure. The cylinder is observed to trace elliptic trajectories. A mathematical model is introduced to investigate the mechanism responsible for the occurrence of the observed elliptic trajectories and figure-8 type trajectories reported in previous laboratory investigations. The results show that the occurrence of either elliptic trajectories or figure-8 type trajectories is governed primarily by structural coupling between vibrations in streamwise and transverse directions. Four types of elliptic trajectories were identified. The results show that the occurrence of the different types of elliptic trajectories is linked to phase angle between the streamwise and transverse vibrations of the structure, which depends on structural coupling. The results of the experiments performed to investigate effectiveness of the TMD in controlling vortex-induced vibrations show that tuning the TMD natural frequency to the natural frequency of the structure decreases significantly the amplitudes of transverse and streamwise vibrations of the structure. Specifically, the transverse amplitudes of vibrations are decreased by a factor of ten and streamwise amplitudes of vibrations are decreased by a factor of three. The results show that, depending on the value of the TMD damping ratio, the frequency of transverse vibrations is either characterized by the natural frequency or by two frequencies: one higher and the other lower than the natural frequency of the structure, referred to as fundamental frequencies. Independent of TMD damping and tuning frequency ratios, the frequency of streamwise vibrations matches that of the transverse vibrations in the synchronization region, and the cylinder traces elliptic trajectories. The phase angle between the streamwise and transverse vibrations is nearly constant when the pendulum is restrained. However, with the TMD engaged and tuned to the natural frequency, the phase angle fluctuates significantly with time. A mathematical model was utilized to gain insight into the frequency response of the structure. The results of the modeling show that the frequency of transverse vibrations is characterized by the fundamental frequency or frequencies of the structure and the frequency of streamwise vibrations is characterized by the fundamental frequency or frequencies as well as the first harmonic of the fundamental frequency or frequencies of the structure.