Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/200701

Title

Development of passive viscoelastic damper to attenuate excessive floor vibrations

Author(s)

Saidi, I.;  Gad, E. F.;  Wilson, J. L.;  Haritos, N.

Abstract

Recent changes in the construction of building floors have included the use of light material composite systems and long span floor systems. Although these changes have many advantages, such floor systems can suffer from excessive vibration due to human activities. This problem is exacerbated in office buildings due to the reduction in inherent damping associated with modern fit outs. Excessive floor vibrations are often realised after the completion of construction or following structural modifications and normally arise due to inadequate knowledge of the damping values in the design process. Thus rectification measures are normally required to reduce floor accelerations. This paper proposes a new innovative passive viscoelastic damper to reduce floor vibrations. This damper can be easily tuned to the fundamental frequency of the floor and can be designed to achieve various damping values. The paper discusses the analytical development of the damper with experimental results presented on a prototype to demonstrate its effectiveness.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences

Source

Engineering Structures, Vol. 33, no. 12 (Dec 2011), pp. 3317-3328

Publication year

2011

FOR Code(s)

0905 Civil Engineering

Keyword(s)

Floor vibrations;  Tuned mass dampers;  Viscoelastic materials

Publisher

Elsevier

ISSN

0141-0296

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2011.05.017

Copyright

Crown Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Peer reviewed