High performance dynamically-loaded structures: Integrating smart dampers

Resumen

The response of dynamically-loaded structures e.g. high-railway bridges, slender footbridges or lightweight building floors is especially dependable on structures dissipation capacity, commonly modeled as structural damping. In robotics, automation or aeronautics smart dampers are commonly used to improve comfort, safety and life span. However, their use in civil engineering structures is not common and it is only applied in singular and outstanding structures. Smart dampers are usually employed in structures as a retrofitting technique to mitigate vibration, but rarely they are incorporated from the design stage. This paper presents a “New generation” of highly-damped slender structures which incorporate from the design stage elements that assure a minimum structural damping and bound the dynamic response. Future design of dynamically-loaded structures will go forward Damping-Based Design. Such a concept is presented hereof.