Control of wind-induced vibration by combined tuned damper for super tall buildings

The wind-induced vibrations of super tall buildings become excessive due to strong wind loads, super building height and high flexibility. Tuned mass dampers (TMD) and tuned liquid column dampers (TLCD) have been widely used to control the vibration for super tall buildings for decades. As an economical vibration control option, the fire protection water tanks installed in super tall buildings are commonly utilized as TLCD to control the structural vibrations. There are however many cases that the TLCD system alone can hardly meet the human comfort criteria due to the storage limit of water tank, and additional TMD system can be installed to further reduce the structural vibration. The wind-induced vibration mitigation effects of super tall buildings equipped with both tuned mass dampers and tuned liquid dampers (CTD, combined tuned damper) are investigated in this study. To assess the effectiveness of the CTD system, a comparison study is conducted amongst the TLCD, TMD and CTD systems installed in a real super tall building project. The results show that the CTD system is cost-effective and has sound vibration mitigation capacity. Considering both the economical advantage of the TLCD system and the high efficiency of the TMD system, the CTD system is a competitive option for wind-induced vibration control of super tall buildings.