Computational Methods in Engineering

Using Vibro-Impact Nonlinear Energy Sinks (VI NESs) is one of the novel strategies to control structural vibrations and mitigate their seismic response. In this system, a mass is tuned on the structure floor, so that it has a specific distance from an inelastic constraint connected to the floor mass. In case of structure stimulation, the displaced VI NES mass collides with the  inelastic constraint and upon impacts, energy is dissipated. In the present work, VI NES is studied when its parameters, including clearance and stiffness ratio, are simultaneously optimized. Harmony search as a recent meta-heuristic algorithm is efficiently specialized and utilized for the aforementioned continuous optimization problem. The optimized attached VI NES is thus shown to be capable of interacting with the primary structure over a wide range of frequencies. The resulting controlled response is then investigated, in a variety of low and medium rise steel moment frames, via nonlinear dynamic time history analyses. Capability of the VI NES to dissipate siesmic input energy of earthquakes and their capabilitiy in reducing response of srtructures effectively, through vibro-impacts between the energy sink’s mass and the floor mass, is discussed by extracting several performance indices and the corresponding Fourier spectra. Results of the numerical simulations done on some structural model examples reveal that the optimized VI NES has caused successive redistribution of energy from low-frequency high-amplitude vibration modes to high-frequency low-amplitude modes, bringing about the desired attenuation of the structural responses.