Using inerter-based dampers as vibrating barriers for non-invasive seismic protection of buildings

Inerter based dampers have shown great promise in structural vibration control, particularly for enhancing the seismic resilience of buildings. Among various implementation strategies, their use as vibrating barriers (ViBa) stands out due to the unique advantage of providing external and non-invasive vibration mitigation. When installed adjacent to the primary structure, an inerter based vibrating barrier (IViBa) engages through soil structure interaction, enabling effective energy dissipation without interfering with the structural integrity or architectural design of the main building. This makes the IViBa especially well suited for retrofitting existing buildings and for application in densely populated urban environments. In its conventional form, the IViBa has an inerter attached to its mass, forming a configuration known as a tuned mass damper inerter (TMDI). While effective, the IViBa with a TMDI configuration still requires a substantial physical mass to achieve satisfactory performance, which can limit its practicality. To address this challenge, this study explores the use of a tuned inerter damper (TID) configuration, where the inerter replaces the conventional IViBa mass entirely. The results demonstrate that the IViBa with a TID configuration can significantly reduce the required physical mass while maintaining the vibration mitigation performance of the system. Additionally, the internal motion of the IViBa is markedly reduced, resulting in lower stroke and reduced space demand, which further improves the feasibility, durability, and ease of implementation of the device in real world applications.