Estimation of damping ratio of TV towers based on ambient vibration monitoring

Damping ratio is an important component in the dynamic analysis and plays a key role in design of supertall buildings. It is necessary to have reliable field measurement records for estimation of structural dynamic characteristics. The main objective of this paper is to estimate eigen mode damping ratio of TV towers as a kind of supertall buildings with the height of more than 250 m. In this regard, field measurements were performed on Milad TV tower, located in Tehran, which has a height of 435 m by ambient vibration monitoring. Damping ratio of this tower is determined using random decrement technique and compared with available data of a few other TV towers. For proposing eigen mode damping ratio of TV towers, it is shown that Rayleigh damping coefficients could not be calibrated properly for tall slender TV towers. A damping estimation chart of TV tower that is a function of natural frequency and structural aspect ratio is proposed, and the chart validity has been checked with field measurement results of other TV towers. The chart shows that structural damping for wind analysis proposed in design codes and standards is overestimated for tall slender TV towers. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.