Damping Guide

Structures vibrate when they’re subjected to forces like wind, pedestrian movement and seismic activity. In tall buildings and other slender structures, these vibrations can cause discomfort for occupants. They can also fatigue materials causing problems with facades, partitions and elevators. Although designers can often mitigate resonant motion by adding stiffness, adding mass or changing the shape of the structure, these modifications are costly, and still may not achieve the desired performance.

 
This is where tuned mass damping (TMD) systems come in: they supplement the inherently poor damping properties of the structure itself, minimizing undesirable motion. And they’re typically more cost-effective than other approaches. 
 

Around the world, TMDs have been essential to the realization of hundreds of breathtakingly innovative designs, some previously thought to be impossible to build. A skillfully engineered TMD can significantly enhance the damping capacity of a traditionally designed structure and allow boundaries to be pushed further.

 

*Click an image for more information