Kinematically excited parametric vibration of a tall building model with a TMD—Part 2: Experimental analyses

This paper constitutes the second part of the article Kinematically excited parametric vibration of a tall building model with a TMD. Part 1: numerical analyses (ACME, in press) by K. Majcher and Z. Wójcicki, which presents the results of theoretical research. This paper presents the experimental verification of those results. The experimental studies were carried out with the use of an especially designed physical model of a tall building, which rested on an earthquake simulator – a shaking table – created for this project. The simulator was used to generate several types of kinematic excitations: harmonic ones, superpositions of harmonic ones and, finally, ones generated on the basis of real seismograms. Vibrations were kinematically excited in the horizontal and vertical directions independently and simultaneously. The vertical component of the earthquake causes the pendulum suspension point to vibrate, thus exciting the pendulum parametrically. The theoretical study indicated a significant influence of this parametric excitation (parametric resonance) on the effectiveness of the Pendulum Tuned Mass Damper (PTMD). Therefore, the experimental analyses were especially focused on the parametric effectsʹ impact on: • the PTMDʹs ability to reduce the buildingʹs vibration, and • the possibility of parametric resonance of the building due to parametric resonance of the PTMD.