Comparison of the effect of a tuned mass damper with a multituned mass dampers under seismic excitation

Recently, tuned mass damper (TMD) has been proven to be effective in reducing building vibrations caused by seismic excitation. Initially, studies focused on installing tuned mass dampers at the top of the building. However, tuned mass damper has some disadvantages. Therefore, studies focused on using smaller mass dampers (MTMD) installed at all floors instead of a single large mass damper placed at the highest point of the structure. The aim of the study is to compare tuned mass damper with multiple tuned mass dampers. This comparison focuses on the effect of each system in reducing the vibration energy and floor displacement of a 10-story building subjected to seismic excitation. The building is subjected to seismic excitation, which is the El-Centro earthquake. MATLAB and Simulink programs are used in this study. In addition, Jaya algorithm is used to determine the optimum solution of mass damper parameters. Then, three cases are examined. The first case is the building with tuned mass damper (TMD) system. The tuned mass damper is connected to the tenth floor. The second case is the building with multiple tuned mass damper (MTMD-A) system. Tuned mass dampers are connected to each floor; the masses of these dampers are determined using Jaya algorithm. The third case is the building with multiple tuned mass damper (MTMD-B) system, but the mass of the dampers is determined as 50,000 kg. Comparisons are made between the cases in terms of vibration energy distribution and floor displacement reduction ratio. According to the results, all three systems are quite effective in reducing both vibration energy and displacements. The TMD system reduced floor displacements by 54% and vibration energy by 75%. The MTMD-A system reduced floor displacements by 76% and vibration energy by 93%. The MTMD-B system reduced floor displacements by 35% and vibration energy by 33%. When comparing TMD with MTMD-A, it was found that MTMD outperformed TMD in reducing floor displacements by 60% and vibration energy by 95%. When comparing TMD with MTMD-B, it was found that TMD outperformed MTMD in reducing displacements by 17% and vibration energy by 21%. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the multi-tuned mass damper. It also proves that MTMD is a more practical solution than using a large mass damper installed at the highest point of the building.