728 ton pendulum
June 25th, 02008 by Alexander Rose
In my research of large pendulums for the 10,000 Year Clock I came across the beautifully designed tuned mass damper in the Taipei 101 tower. Basically really tall buildings are themselves massive pendulums, as they are built to sway in the wind and earthquakes. However very tall buildings in earthquake zones need something to dampen this motion.
These mass dampers do that, and are used widely including the ones in the new buildings here in San Francisco that use baffled water tanks. However the one pictured above is the first one I have seen designed with a high degree of aesthetics in mind… It was clearly designed impress people on the building tour. Below is a small animated image of how it counteracts building sway, it pretty much does what you do with your own weight when you are standing on a stool changing that light bulb and it starts to sway.
As pointed out in a couple of the comments there is an astounding video of this mass dampening pendulum in action as the recent earthquakes in China reached the Taipei tower. One guy had the presence of mind to run in and video tape the pendulum in action…
June 25th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Here’s a post with a video of it moving on May 12th, when the earthquake happened in Sichuan, China. Apparently the people in the video ran in to see the ball in action:
http://deputy-dog.com/2008/06/22/in-action-a-skyscrapers-amazing-728-ton-stabilising-ball/
June 26th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Thanks for the interesting article.
There is a fascinating video of the Taipei-101 tuned damper during the recent earthquake in mainland China (Sichuan) at http://www.popgive.com/2008/06/amazing-728-ton-stabilising-ball.html You can see the large crowd of onlookers who rushed to the core of the building to see the giant ball in action.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Wow, I read about this a while back when the building was being built. This is the first video I’ve seen showing the counter weight moving. Very impressive!
June 27th, 2008 at 5:15 am
nice post, it is very issential to fight natural impacts.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Intriguing. Very well done article, highly informative. The video could be better, but it’s amazing as it is. Does the Sears tower in Chicago have a pendulum? My aunt worked there years ago, she said she could often feel the building swaying.
June 27th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
“it pretty much does what you do with your own weight when you are standing on a stool changing that light bulb and it starts to sway.”
If you’re up that high, stop standing on a stool and get a ladder.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Yeah, i’ve seen that before on some other blog. it’s really amazing. wait… i found the link:
http://deputy-dog.com/2008/06/22/in-action-a-skyscrapers-amazing-728-ton-stabilising-ball/
June 30th, 2008 at 12:52 am
You have to love China, “Holy crap we’re having an earthquake. We better go and film how the mass damper is reacting to this!”
June 30th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Why not? If you’re that high up the tower to start with the odds of you making it out alive if the ball fails are pretty slim. Might as well stay and watch the ball swing.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
this would make a magnificent bell. - benjamin koshkin
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
aren’t dampers often used in the base of the buildings? Michael Adkinson
July 4th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
So, if a couple people started pushing on the ball when there was no earthquake and got it swinging pretty hard, could they bring the building down as if there was an earthquake with no dampener?
July 19th, 2008 at 5:52 am
[…] For whom the bell tolls [Image: Diagram of Taipei 101’s earthquake ball via the Long Now Foundation]. […]
August 25th, 2008 at 8:31 am
[…] object can be used to stabilize a skyscraper during an earthquake. Check out the following link: http://blog.longnow.org/2008/06/25/728-ton-pendulum (period 1 missed this, so ask me to see this tomorrow in period […]