Seismic effectiveness of hysteretic tuned mass dampers for inelastic structures
The problem of reducing the damage due to seismic loads in engineering structures by means of tuned mass dampers (TMDs) is addressed. Differently from previous studies focused on linear or geometrically nonlinear TMDs, the present work is concerned with a device that exhibits a hysteretic restoring force with pinching. A numerical TMD optimization is carried out so as to ensure optimal energy transfer from the main structure to the TMD for various seismic ground motion severities. The effectiveness of the vibration protection strategy is discussed for two different structural systems, i.e.