In this study, based on the results from the sinusoidal base excitation analyses of a single degree of freedom system with a tuned mass damper (TMD) , the optimal friction is computed so that the rail friction improve the performance of the TMD. The magnitude of the optimal friction increases with increasing mass ratio of the TMD and decreases with increasing structural damping. Particularly, it is observed that the optimized friction force gives better control performance than the optimized viscous damping of the TMD. However, because the performance of the TMD considerably deteriorates when the friction force increases over the optimal value, it is required to keep the friction force from exceeding the optimal value. Based on the results from this study, it is possible to economically design the TMD by avoiding the unconditional minimization of the rail friction and in some cases by removing the additional damping devices of which function can be performed by the rail friction.

• Lee, Sang-Hyun(Dankook University) Corresponding author
• Woo, Sung-Sik(Dankook University)
• Chung, Lan(Dankook University)