Mass Inertia Effect based Vibration Control Systems for Civil Engineering Structure and Infrastructure

In 1972, J.T.P. Yao introduced the modern control theory into vibration control of civil structures (Yao, 1972), which started the new era of research on structural active control in civil engineering field. During the development of nearly 40 years, Active Mass Driver/Damper (AMD) control, with the better control effect and cheaper control cost, has taken the lead in various active control occasions, becoming the most extensively used and researched control systems in lots of practical applications (Soong, 1990; Housner etal., 1997; Spencer etal., 1997; Ou, 2003). Several important journals in civil engineering field, such as ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics (issue 4th, in 2004), ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering (issue 7th, in 2003), Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics (issue 11th, in 2001 and issue 11th, in 1998), reviewed the-state-of-the-art in research and engineering applications of semi-active control and active control, especially AMD control. In addition, Spencer and Nagarajaiah (2003) systematically overviewed the applications of active control in civil engineering. Up to date, more than 50 high-rising buildings, television towers and about 15 large-scale bridge towers have been equipped with AMD control systems for reducing wind-induced vibration or earthquake-induced vibration of the structures. Besides, there are quite a number of successful applications with passive Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) control system, from wind induced vibration control of long-span bridge towers and building structures, to chimneys and mast structures; from the first applications of the collapsed World Trade Center towers and coetaneous John Hancock building etc., which were built in 1960s, to recently built highest structures in the world, e.g. Twin towers in KuluaLumpur in Malaysia, 101 skyscraper in Taipei city and Guangzhou New TV tower in China etc. It can be seen from these applications, the implementation of incorporating Mass Driver/Damper based vibration control systems for protection of Civil Engineering structures and infrastructures against wind and earthquake excitations, have already been widely accepted by the field researchers as well as engineer societies.