Combined tuned mass damper and vibro-impacting nonlinear energy sink for the seismic protection of frame structures

It is well established that, for tuned mass dampers, a high mass ratio relative to the protected structure is essential for effective performance under seismic excitation in most scenarios. This paper proposes a novel method to enhance the seismic effectiveness of a tuned mass damper without increasing the mass ratio. The proposed approach introduces an innovative device in which a tuned mass damper is serially coupled with a vibro-impacting mass that slides with negligible friction before impacting the boundaries of its runway. This system is then connected to the first storey of the frame structure via a Kelvin–Voigt visco-elastic device. The study employs a dynamically equivalent four-degree-of-freedom model, with its governing equations derived through a direct formulation approach. Initially, the coupled system is subjected to harmonic excitation, and the resulting behaviour is represented using frequency–response curves, which depict the maximum displacements of the structure in relation to the excitation frequency. Following this, a subsequent analysis involves subjecting the system to three distinct earthquake records to evaluate its performance under seismic excitation. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed protective device in reducing the displacements of the frame structure during seismic events, the displacements of the first storey and the drifts of the superstructure are compared to those of a frame structure without the external device. The findings indicate that the proposed device performs effectively across a wide range of system parameters, proving to be especially effective for low- and medium-rise frame structures.