Taipei 101 730 Ton Tuned Mass Damper

During my trip to Taiwan in 2006, I visited Taipei 101, the world's tallest building (for now) at 1667 ft (509 meters). One of the most impressive things is the 730 tons tuned mass damper which is held at the 88th floor, stabilizing the tower against earthquakes, typhoons, and wind.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Taipei
• 101
• tuned
• mass
• damper
• ROC
• R.O.C.
• Taiwan

[amangonecrazy]

so this actually helps when threres a typhoon? if the building moves the hyraulics under the damper will push it to the opposite of where the building is moving?

[luckylaika]

The 730 ton tuned mass damper (TMD) acts like a giant pendulum to counteract the building's movement - reducing sway due to wind by 30 to 40 percent. Eight steel cables form a sling to support the ball, while eight viscous dampers act like shock absorbers when the sphere shifts. Able to move 5 ft. in any direction, the Taipei TMD is the world's largest and heaviest. But it has to be point out that this is a completely PASSIVE system meaning that it has no active parts powered by energy.

[skrape110]

@luckylaika

exactly; nice explanation. i do have a question though. what is "tuned" referencing?

[luckylaika]

@skrape110 Tuned means that the mass damper is built that way that it reduces the worst-case vibrations. It is "tuned" to counteract those frequencies.

[frtard]

I love how this was turned into something like a science museum exhibit rather than just another great, but hidden, piece of engineering.

[12345mattable]

Search how do they doit there's an episode

On this

[gordongate]

@skrape110 The weight of the damper is an exact multiple of the buildings empty weight, that means that the weight will move with the building when it sways one way but will linger due to inertia for enough time to be out of phase by half a cycle.

As the building sways back the opposite way, this lingering or "dwell time" if tuned correctly means that the pendulum action of the weight is opposite to the building and will cancel out the swaying quicker than if the building had no damper.

[WellWisher4]

@ChunderThunder1 I'm sure that's not what it's called.

[ChunderThunder1]

@WellWisher4 annoying.

[WellWisher4]

Does anyone know what the song in the background is called?

[bishopdante]

@amangonecrazy

it's basically a massive steadicam.