Tuned two-mass dampers for vibration control of offshore platforms

Abstract

A Tuned Two-Mass Damper (TTMD) for minimizing vibrations of an offshore platform is developed in this study. TTMD is a passive vibration absorber, and it consists of two parallel undamped tuned mass dampers connected by a dashpot. The influences of its parameters on the vibration absorption capacity are studied through numerical examples. Next, the optimum parameters of TTMD are found, and the performance and robustness of TTMD are determined. The results from this study show that, for absorbing the structural vibration, an optimum TTMD is more effective than a conventional TMD with the same weight as TTMD. In other words, using TTMD significantly reduces the added weight to the main structure compared with using TMD based on the same condition and obtained effectiveness. Moreover, while maintaining the same performance and weight, an optimum TTMD is much more robust than an optimum TMD for resisting the change in structural stiffness.