Theoretical and experimental research on damping performance of suspended multiple mass pendulums damper

Conventional suspended mass pendulum damper (SMPD) include suspended single mass pendulum damper (SSMPD), tandem suspended multiple mass pendulums damper without springs (TSMP), and parallel suspended multiple mass pendulums damper without springs (PSMP), these types of SMPD have the advantages such as clear mechanism, simple construction, and good damping effect, but they have a narrow tuning frequency band and the pendulum length needs to be set too long for low-frequency super tall structures and too short for high-frequency tall structures, limiting their application in practical engineering. Because of this, the paper proposes connecting the spring to the mass pendulum, forming a tandem suspended multiple mass pendulums damper with spring (TSMP-S) and a parallel suspended multiple mass pendulums damper with spring (PSMP-S), and establishing structural system dynamics equations and performing the dynamic characterization of the TSMP-S and PSMP-S, obtain their frequency resolved solutions to explain the damping mechanism. In order to study the vibration-damping performance of these two types of SMPD, through numerical simulations to compare the damping effect of the conventional SMPD, TSMP-S, and PSMP-S on the controlled structures, and a series of shaking table tests on controlled and uncontrolled structures to verify the effectiveness of SSMPD, TSMP, PSMP, TSMP-S and PSMP-S for damping control of controlled structures under conventional earthquake and earthquake at four types of sites. Numerical simulations and shaking table test results in both show that the TSMP-S has the best damping effect, with the advantages of increasing the tuning frequency band, achieving multi-order vibration control, and flexible adjustment of the pendulum length, which is suitable for actual engineering.