Simplified multimode control of seismic response of high-rise chimneys using distributed tuned mass inerter systems (TMIS)

Abstract The industrial chimney is one of the important components used in industrial processes. The tuned mass damper was introduced in previous studies to improve its reliability for resisting earthquakes. However, a large additional mass is generally required for applying a tuned mass damper in a chimney, which may be inappropriate owing to the additional moment action. In this study, the tuned mass inerter system (TMIS) is adopted as an ungrounded lightweight passive control device for the seismic response mitigation of high-rise chimneys. The ungrounded TMIS consists of a tuned mass element and a parallel-connected tuning spring and inerter subsystem. Considering that the influence of high modes on the responses of a high-rise chimney may not be neglected, distributed TMISs (d-TMISs) are proposed for installation on the chimney for multimode control of seismic response. A strategy to optimize d-TMISs for multimode control of high-rise chimneys is developed. A typical numerical chimney model is established to illustrate the proposed optimal design method. Time history analysis and comparative studies are conducted to verify the optimal multimode control design and the lightweight effect of d-TMISs compared to the traditional tuned mass dampers. The results show that by applying the proposed optimization in d-TMISs, the performance objectives can be achieved and the chimney’s responses involving the high-order modes can be reduced as anticipated. The required weight of d-TMISs is less than that for tuned mass dampers under an identical performance objective. It is observed that the proposed optimal multimode control method is effective and that d-TMISs can achieve the lightweight effect.