Experimental study on vibration control performance of TMD-STF damper

A tuned mass damper (TMD) using shear thickening fluid (STF) as an energy dissipation medium is designed and manufactured. In addition, a TMD incorporating silicone oil (TMD-Si49) is fabricated to compare and analyze the vibration control performance of TMD-STF. Free vibration, forced vibration, and random excitation tests are conducted on a single degree of freedom (SDOF) structure model equipped with TMD-STF and TMD-Si49, respectively. The displacement and acceleration response of the SDOF model are recorded to analyze the vibration control performance of TMD-STF and TMD-Si49 under different load conditions. The results of the free vibration test show that TMD-STF affects the coupling damping ratio of the test model, exhibiting time-varying damping characteristics, but does not impact the coupling frequency ratio. In the forced vibration test, TMD-STF effectively expands the effective frequency range of vibration control performance by approximately 17.0% compared to TMD-Si49. The random excitation test demonstrates that TMD-STF exhibits significantly improved control of acceleration response rather than displacement control. The research findings on TMD-STF provide novel insights for vibration control in engineering structures.