Supervisor: Christos Georgakis

ind and ocean wave induced vibrations are a concern for comfort and stability in high-rise buildings. These buildings can be at the most fundamental level be modelled as a harmonic oscillator, where it is possible to derive analogues to a spring constant and mass. With this, principles such as resonance, damping and forced vibrations can be extended to buildings. In order to improve comfort levels, we can introduce a second degree of freedom by adding an oscillator. Tuning the damping ratio, stiffness and mass of the new oscillator (damping mass) can allow us to tune the response of the new system so that the resonant frequencies are less problematic. Tuned mass dampers are a well-deployed technology in fields such as ship stabilisation and automobile shock absorbers. This talk will also study two cases of tall buildings with tuned mass dampers- Taipei 101 and the European Court of Justice. While tuned mass dampers improve building stability, the phase delay between impulse force and damping force means that the TMDs do not help in case of strong resonant excitations such as earthquakes.