An energy-robust nonlinear energy sink with inerter

This paper presents an inerter-enhanced nonlinear mass damper developed from an asymmetric nonlinear energy sink (Asym NES), which adds an inerter between the auxiliary mass of the Asym NES and a fixed point. The size of the Asym NES-inerter (Asym NESI) can be significantly reduced due to the inerter providing a large inertial effect with limited physical mass involved. The design concept of the Asym NESI will be described first. Subsequently, the performance of the Asym NESI will be evaluated on a three-story frame structure through computational investigations. Results show that the Asym NESI exhibites strong robustness against changes in both energy level and structural frequency. Driven by the inertial effect, the Asym NESI is excellent in control performance and installation flexibility under the seismic excitation considered, demonstrating great potential as a superior control strategy for response mitigation of building structures.