Aeroelastic Real-Time Hybrid Simulation. II: Mitigation of Vortex-Induced Vibration of a Tall Building Structure

AbstractHigh-rise structures with large aspect ratios are subjected to unexpected motions under wind excitation. Structural vibrations induced by vortices in the wake were captured by aeroelastic real-time hybrid simulation (aeroRTHS) in the companion paper. An effective and practical method is critical for explaining the mitigation of adverse wind loading impact upon these structures. Analyzing the performance of structural control devices against wind excitation in an aeroelastic wind tunnel test often is time- and cost-intensive. In this paper, aeroRTHS testing is extended to include (1) a vibration control device numerically added to the numerical substructures and tested to mitigate the cross-wind oscillation in the aeroRTHS framework; and (2) the use of 128 pressure sensors installed on two side faces of a physical building model in a boundary layer wind tunnel (BLWT) at the University of Florida Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure Equipment Facility (UF NHERI EF) to provide a more complete description of the wind-force distributions imparted on nine building configurations both with and without a tuned mass damper (TMD) at various constant wind speeds. Wind-force distribution was characterized in the time domain in terms of time histories of equivalent forces and displacements, and envelopes of wind forces. Frequency response analysis was conducted based on power spectral densities of input equivalent wind forces and output structural dynamic response. Results from the aeroRTHS tests demonstrated that the aeroRTHS method is capable of investigating aeroelastic structures with passive mitigation devices. The aeroRTHS tests in the wind tunnel demonstrated that the augmentation of buildings with TMDs is an effective way to attenuate the cross-wind vibration in tall buildings.