Structural vibration control by means of nonlinear pendulum dampers

This paper discusses the application of a nonlinear Pendulum Tuned Mass Damper (PTMD) for the reduction of structural vibrations. Pendulum dynamic absorbers are used extensively to reduce the vibration level of slender elastic structures such as towers. A PTMD is a device consisting of a suspended mass, and a damper that is attached to the tower in order to reduce its dynamic response. The primary eigenfrequency of the nonlinear damper is tuned to a particular structural frequency. Energy is dissipated by the damping force acting on the structure. Here, the PTMD is applied to a tower as a continuous system consisting of distributed mass and elasticity. The optimum values of PTMD parameters are found based on minimization of the response of the tower tip–point. Time history and frequency domain responses for the tower with PTMD in linear and nonlinear condition are compared. In addition, the equations of motion of active pendulum control are intruduced. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)