Abstract
The classical impact damper (CID) and the pendulum impact damper (PID) are studied for the suppression of horizontal vibrations of civil engineering structures. Experiments on the PID to verify the validity of the mathematical model are done and comparisons with simulation results are provided. Parametric study under harmonic excitation shows that the effectiveness of the CID is sensitive to changes in the amplitude of the excitation. On the other hand, the PID is insensitive to changes in the amplitude of the excitation when its frequency is close to the structural frequency, and it is less sensitive to deviations in tuning than the tuned mass damper (TMD). Comparison of the CID, PID and TMD shows optimum efficiency in terms of mass ratio, under steadystate motion and ideal conditions, to be highest for the TMD and lowest for the PID. Included is a discussion of the practical constraints that may govern the actual choice of damper.
