Optimal design of a novel TVMD-energy harvesting device for seismic control of long-period structures

  • Wei Liu orcid

    Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan
  • Jiang Liu

    Marine Engineering College, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Article ID: 3415
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59400/mea3415
Keywords: energy harvesting, long-period structures, TVMD, seismic control, optimal design method

Abstract

Over the past ten years, energy harvesting (EH) from ambient energy has become essential for wireless applications, allowing low-powered electronics to operate. Due to the economic and ecological advantages of the EH technology, it is a promising idea to apply it to the seismic control of long-period structures while converting the earthquake input energy into electricity for structural health monitoring, earthquake observation, or other purposes. However, rare literature can be found on applying EH technology for the vibration control of long-period structures, especially in earthquake-prone areas. During extreme earthquakes, the tuned viscous mass damper (TVMD) exhibits an excellent control effect on long-period structures. To combine the advantages of EH and TVMD, a novel device, namely, the TVMD-EH damper, was proposed for the seismic control of long-period structures while harvesting the earthquake input energy simultaneously for electricity-needed purposes. A capacitor, a resistor, and piezoelectric material constructed an EH loop. Then, the EH loop was connected with the TVMD device to construct the TVMD-EH damper. In this study, the optimal design method for the TVMD-EH damper was proposed, and a feasibility study was conducted to investigate the performance of the device. The results demonstrate that the proposed TVMD-EH damper provides effective seismic response mitigation for the targeted structure while enabling simultaneous energy harvesting. In particular, the peak harvested electric power reaches 6.8 W under the El Centro record and 1.9 W under the Sakishima record suggesting practical potential for powering low-power independent sensors and related electronics and reducing battery dependence.

Published
2025-10-11
How to Cite
Liu, W., & Liu, J. (2025). Optimal design of a novel TVMD-energy harvesting device for seismic control of long-period structures. Mechanical Engineering Advances, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.59400/mea3415
Issue
Vol. 3 No. 4 (2025)
Section
Article

Copyright (c) 2025 Wei Liu, Jiang Liu

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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