Mechanical Model and Damping Effect of a Particle-Inertial Damper

Particle dampers (PD) are safe, economical, and effective energy-dissipation devices for structures. However, the additional mass of PD must be sufficiently large to provide a better damping effect, and the initial movement condition of particles has a significant impact on the damping effect of PD. In this study, a particle_inertial damper (PID) is proposed to overcome these problems, and its mechanical model is established with and without considering particle collision. Subsequently, the influence of particle rolling friction and particle collision on the inertial amplification capacity as well as the dynamic response of a single degree of freedom (SDOF) structure with non-collision and collision PID (SDOF-PID) are systematically analysed. Finally, the control effects of a PID and a tuned mass damper (TMD) are compared based on two typical optimisation methods. The results indicate that particle rolling friction has little influence on the inertia amplification effect of a PID and the displacement response of a SDOF-PID. Under harmonic excitation, particle collision significantly affects the damping mechanism of a PID by its equivalent inertia coefficient, equivalent damping coefficient, and equivalent stiffness coefficient. The fixed-point theory and ‘performance-cost’ theory can be used to optimise the PID to a certain extent. The damping effect of a PID on the SDOF under the most severe seismic excitation is better than that of the PID under white noise excitation. With respect to the decreasing ratio of 40~50%, the additional mass of the PID is only one thousandth that of the TMD under the same damping capacity demand.

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