Innovative Hamburger-Shaped Eddy Current Damper Designed for Wind-Induced Vibration Control of Civil Structures

Abstract

In this paper, an innovative hamburger-shaped eddy current damper (HSECD) is presented to mitigate the responses of civil structures subjected to wind excitations. The damper’s capacity to dissipate energy is significantly enhanced through a two-phase configuration of permanent magnets (PMs) and two transmission devices: a ball-screw assembly and a bevel gear group. The improved eddy current damper (ECD) solves the problem that the low damping density of traditional ECDs hinders their application to the field of vibration control for civil structures. First, the construction details of this novel HSECD are elaborated, and its principle is discussed through theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. Subsequently, a prototype of the HSECD was fabricated, and cyclic tensile–compressive tests were conducted to investigate its mechanical performance. Furthermore, the temperature effect on the damper’s maximum output force was analyzed, and more than 10% performance degradation was detected in tests with a continuous loading of 1,250 s, while the damper performance quickly reached a steady state after a certain decline. A theoretical model of the HSECD was then established to simulate its hysteretic characteristics, and the accuracy was verified by comparing it with the test data, where their energy error was only 1.9%. Finally, the application of the HSECD to both a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) simplified system and a jacking engineering system demonstrates its excellent control performance because the reduction ratios of their peak displacement were as high as 31.1% and 40.9%, respectively. These results highlight the significant practical value of the HSECD in mitigating the wind-induced vibrations for engineering structures.