Viscoelastic Coupling Dampers for Enhanced Dynamic Performance of a High-Rise in Toronto

The biggest challenge faced by structural engineers in the design of high-rise structures is to control the dynamic responses of these structures due to wind and earthquake vibrations. While the traditional techniques of stiffening and adding vibration absorbers can mitigate the vibrational response to a degree, they also increase the construction cost and result in a loss of leasable space in the building structure. The goal of the proposed project is to perform preliminary and detailed design of a 60-storey high-rise structure in downtown Toronto using the Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) from Kinetica Dynamics Inc, which is a spinoff company from the University of Toronto. The VCD is a novel damping system that controls high-rise wind and earthquake vibrations by adding distributed viscous damping to the building without occupying any leasable floor space. The project is divided into three stages, all focusing on a 60-storey high-rise building in downtown Toronto: i) preliminary VCD design and analytical model validation, ii) VCD design optimization and iii) Detailed VCD design. The engineering work performed during this internship will result in important design documents for future Kinetica Dynamics projects.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Jeffrey Packer

Student:

Jack Wen Wei Guo

Partner:

Kinetica Dynamics Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Construction and infrastructure

University:

University of Toronto