The use of a pendulum dynamic mass absorber to protect a trilithic symmetric system from the overturning

The trilith consists of two vertical elements (columns) supporting a horizontal element (lintel). The understanding of the dynamic behaviour of triliths is an important step towards their preservation and starts with the knowledge of the dynamics of rigid blocks. A passive method based on a dynamic mass absorber is used to protect a trilith from overturning. The protection system is modelled as a pendulum, hinged on the lintel, with the mass lumped at the end. The equations of rocking motion, uplift and the impact conditions are obtained for the coupled system trilith-mass absorber. An extensive parametric analysis is performed with the aim to compare the behaviour of the system with and without the pendulum, under impulsive one-sine (or one-cosine) base excitations. In order to point out the effectiveness of the protection system, overturning spectra, providing the amplitude of the excitation versus its frequency, are obtained. The pendulum mass absorber results effective in avoiding overturning in specific ranges of the frequency of the excitation. However, outside these ranges the mass absorber never compromises the safety of the trilith.