Revolutionary tuned mass damper by carbon fiber powder based shear thickening fluid to realize adaptive stiffness and damping

Abstract

The tuned mass damper (TMD), as a classical passive vibration control method, have been widely applied to protect building structures from wind and earthquake-induced vibrations. However, conventional passive TMDs suffer from fixed spring and damping characteristics, limiting their adaptability to varying frequencies and excitation conditions. In this work, a novel nonlinear TMD is proposed by incorporating a carbon fiber powder-based shear thickening fluid (CFP-STF), whose frequency-dependent rheological properties extend the effective control bandwidth of the TMD. Based on the fixed-point theory, the CFP-STF based TMD design methodology with a simplified lumped mass model is proposed to optimize the vibration control performance. The analysis and comparison of the CFP-STF based TMD with the uncontrolled structure and two constant damping TMDs are carried out to demonstrate its advantages over traditional passive control methods. The results demonstrate that the CFP-STF-based TMD significantly enhances broadband vibration control performance and effectively mitigates the detuning effect observed in conventional systems. Furthermore, optimal vibration suppression requires tuning the rheological properties of the STF to match the dynamic and damping characteristics of the main structure.