Tuned Mass Damper

To reduce the vibrations around the first eigen frequency a tuned mass damper is designed with the
additional mass not exceeding 5% of the top mass. The top mass is 22 tons, so the additional mass
can be 1,1 tons.
To understand the influence of the TMD, first the behaviour of the basic turbine is studied. So, only K
and B of the main shaft are present. K can be determined from the calculated eigen values of the first
question which were all wi. The first eigenvalue is used.

The assumption is made that the damping ratio that is present in the main structure is 1%. The
damping coefficient of the structure B can be calculated as followed:

For the damped system without the TMD the equation of X/F is given by

The TMD can be designed departing from m=1100kg. From this & can be calculated.

From this the optimal damping coefficient for the tuned mass damper can be found.

To compare the influence of the damping coefficient, also a b-value of 500, 100 and 1500 is taken.
The amplitude of the system for the undamped TMD,so an undamped vibration absorber, is as
follows:
(

)(

For the full system of the turbine and tuned mass damper we have following equation
(

)(

When these formulas are calculated for a range of angular frequencies going from 0 to 10 and are
plotted according to the frequency (Hz) and in a dB-scale according to the y-value following figure is
obtained.

As we expect the amplitude will increase a lot around the first eigen frequency of 0.5601 Hz. This is
due to the fact that the first mode shape will be excited. The intension of the tuned mass damper is
to reduce this peak. When using an undamped TMD (b=0) we see clearly in red that at the first
natural frequency the amplitude has been reduced a lot. As we know a highly negative dB value
stands for a very small value. But the disadvantage is the peak didnt go away. It shifted and a new
one was created because now we have a 2dof system. At the natural frequency the problem is solved
but in a frequency band around this value it got worse.
The idea of the tuned mass damper is to decrease vibrations in this frequency band. So this means
we will need to also have a damping of the TDM.
A small damping coefficient of 100 has still the main shape of the undamped situation but the peaks
are rounded off. This is the peak and reductions is not as big as in the undamped situation but the
result still not satisfies because there is still a significant amplification.
Increasing damping coefficient leads to the flattening of the previous shape. As can be seen with the
b-value of 500(red dashed), the peaks have become smaller and to a more acceptable value. There is
a good reduction at the first natural frequency but the excitation is still bigger around this value than
the situation without TMD.
The TMD can be optimized with a b-value of 985.4 Ns/m. As showed in green, still the reduction at
the natural frequency is high to have an acceptable result. Furthermore the amplification of
amplitude around this frequency is very limited. By this we can indeed say that this is the most ideal
situation we can have for the system.
If the damping coefficient goes above this value, there can be seen that the amplitude at the natural
frequency increases again, In the rest of the design frequency band the value follows closely the
yellow, optimized line. For the frequencies out of this band a close relation with the original system
without TMD can be seen. This is again less interesting because of a slight increase around the
natural frequency but a more clear, unwanted increase of amplitude at the frequency.

The points P and Q are the point where all curves will pass independent of the damping. They are
located at P=(0.5025,-93.45) and Q=(0.586,-93.75). With proper design, optimal damping, the
minimum amplitude response curve passes with a horizontal tangent through these points. So this
means the little peak is located at the points P and Q.
Next to that we see that the peaks will shift a little with increasing damping. Starting from the
undamped situation with increasing b-value , there can be seen that the peaks will move closer to
each other. The amplitude at the peaks will decrease first and after that increase. This means that
there is an optimal curve which is related to bopt as calculated before.
In conclusion it is important to design a good TMD. Therefor the amplitude response will be strongly
reduced to acceptable levels without increasing the amplitude response in the frequency band to
undesirable levels.

Earthquake
The earthquake force with a sampling frequency of 1Hz is showed below. The sampling frequency
gives the number of measurements taken in one second, in our case 1.
Here the sample frequency of 1Hz is taken because the signal consist of 477 measurements. With a
sampling frequency of 50Hz only a signal of 9.5s would be obtained. To have a longer signal we use a
lower sampling frequency. It is off course possible to choose another sampling frequency.

The time responses of the horizontal displacement of the mass due to the earthquake is shown
below. To calculate this, the convolution integral can be used.
( )

( ) (

In this formula f and h can switch places.

( )

( )

To use this formula the sampling frequency of both entries has to be equal. Therefor the impulse
response is again calculated but now with a time distribution using the same sampling frequency of
1Hz and also 477 elements in total. Analog like the previous impulse response, it is again calculated
for the new time vector with and without the TMD.
The convolution of two sets of 477 elements give us a new set of data which consist of 477*2-1=953
elements. This is still according to the same sampling frequency. Which means that we will have to
plot the displacements against a time vector of 953 elements (from 0 to 952s) because of the
sampling frequency of 1Hz. In general the stepsize between the timepoint will be 1/sampling
frequency. For example a sampling frequency of 5Hz will lead to a data point every 0.2s. The last time
value will be (the number of elements * stepsize stepsize)

As we can see on the figure the displacement will vary strongly due to the earthquake. In the
beginning there are large forces on the turbine. This leads to large displacements in the structure
without TMD. The earthquake force will decrease after a time and also will the displacement do. The
lower force leads to lower displacements but also the displacement decreases due to the fact that
the structure without TMD has some damping present.
Most important of course is the red curve which shows the turbine with the TMD. It can be seen that
the amplitude of the displacement is much lower than without TMD. So here we see the positive
influence of the TMD on the structure. Namely damping the excitation of the structure so we dont
have abnormal/unacceptable displacements regarding the stability of the structure.
Also the period of large displacements is much shorter (more than half). This means that the
structure will behave more calm. We can see that from 100s on the displacement is almost
neglectable while the earthquake is still exciting a significant force.
It shows clearly the importance of a TMD. The structure can only withstand a certain amount of
displacement for a limited period before failing. A TMD meets this conditions by reducing the
amplitude of the displacement but also damping the signal on a good way so the timeline where
there is a noticeable displacement is as short as possible.