Field testing and performance evaluation of AMD-controlled high-rise building structures with real-world validation

In recent decades, structural control of civil infrastructures, especially high-rise buildings, has been broadly investigated and developed to mitigate disaster-induced structural responses. The traditional tuned mass damper (TMD) has been exploited to the active mass damper (AMD) system, which leads to the necessary field testing and performance evaluation. Accordingly, a comprehensive dynamic testing and performance evaluation method is proposed in this paper for high-rise structures with AMD systems. Four testing scenarios are firstly adopted and investigated at the field testing stage, including ambient vibration, free vibration, forced vibration, and dynamic loading vibration. Correspondingly, a multi-level performance evaluation framework, sequentially containing direct response data analysis, modal characteristic identification, AMD excitation performance validation, and vibration control efficiency evaluation, is designed and presented for the control performance evaluation and confirmation. To illustrate the presented multi-scenario dynamic testing and multi-level performance evaluation framework, a field dynamic testing was systematically conducted on a real-world tall tower with an AMD system. In the first testing part, the tower's critical dynamic characteristics, such as natural frequency, damping ratio, and modal mass, are accurately identified. Subsequently, the control performance of the AMD system is evaluated by analysis of the excitation and actuation capacity and the structural vibration control efficiency. Furthermore, the amplitude dependency of the damping ratio is identified, and the potential mechanism is discussed.