A tuned cable-inerter system for vibration reduction of towers

The cable-based energy dissipating system (CEDS) is promising to the vibration reduction of towers by transforming the bending deformation of the main structure into the movement of cable bottom extremity. However, the axial deformation of the cable remains open to be discussed. In this study, a novel tuned cable-inerter system (TCIS) is proposed by exploiting the axial deformation of the cable in order to achieve the tuning effect. First, the characteristics of the TCIS is studied analytically, indicating that the resonant frequency of the TCIS is capable to approximate the natural frequency of the tower. Based on this, a reduced-order model for describing the dynamic behavior of the tower equipped with the proposed TCIS is developed, and a closed-form solution allowing for the parameter optimization is obtained from the fixed-point theory. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed TCIS is confirmed taking a wind turbine as a case example. The optimal design of TCIS can be rapidly obtained from the closed-form solution, having potential value to efficient vibration reduction of tower structures without additional weight at the top.