High-Rise Building Seismic Vibration Control Using Large Tuned Top-Floor Mass Damper

This paper details the design of a high-rise reinforced concrete building whose top floor is isolated and used as the mass for a large-scale mass damper, describing the effect of the vibration control realized. Conventional mass dampers with additional weight at the building tops have been installed to improve environmental vibration against strong wind. Mass dampers have rarely been used, however, as measure against earthquakes. We developed large-scale vibration control using the top floor building weight to serve as a mass damper. The building is a high-rise reinforced concrete structure, 162 meters high, with 43 above-ground stories. Based on seismic response analysis using artificial earthquake waves, the natural vibration period of the mass damper was tuned to decrease story drift in the entire building. The mass damper reduced maximum story drift angle by 20%.