Tuned Mass Damper a the Top of Taipei 101
When construction of the Taipei 101 was completed, there was a lot of press about it. There was a lot to say about architecture of the building as well as its use of auspicious symbols all over the building. One thing which struck me at the time was how it made use of state of the art technology to negate the effects of earthquakes. Taiwan sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and it is no stranger to earthquakes. This is also part of the reason why there aren’t a lot of very tall buildings here in the island. Taipei 101 is a notable exception. It makes use of a tuned mass damper to counteract any swaying of the building.
Massive Counterweight at the Top of Taipei 101
If you make something narrow stand on its end, there would be swaying particularly on the top end of the thing. This is normal for skyscrapers and they are usually built with this flexibility in mind. However, for supertall buildings like Taipei 101, one could use a tuned mass damper to negate the swaying at the top. Basically there is a heavy mass placed at the top of the building and when the building sways, the damper would move to counteract any swaying by the building. This has the effect of minimizing or dampening the movement of the top of the building. This ingenious solution is used by a lot of very tall buildings and it seems to be working so far. Typhoons which also hit the island regularly can also sway the top of the building. I didn’t see the tuned mass damper move when I was there but there was a video of it in action when an earthquake hit the country.
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