news
05 MAR 2021
ARUP Hong Kong uses the VCD in the Seasons Residences
Kinetica is excited for ARUP Hong Kong to be using the Viscoelastic Coupling Damper in the structural designs for all 4 towers of the Seasons Residences in Manila, using a performance-based design approach.
To read a summary of the project from ARUP, click here.
In addition, a promotional video that outlines the development history, features and location of the Seasons Residences is available here.
08 JUL 2020
The Viscoelastic Coupling Damper is featured in the July issue of STRUCTURE ® magazine
Kinetica's Michael Montgomery and Constantin Christopoulos has written an article in the July 2020 issue of STRUCTURE ® magazines, a premier resource for practicing structural engineers.
The article, "Enhanced Wind and Seismic Performance of Tall Buildings", details the Viscoelastic Coupling Damper and its uses. To read the full article, you can read at the website here, or download the article as a pdf here.
06 NOV 2019
The VCD is presented during Day 5 of the CTBUH 10th World Congress held in Toronto
As part of the Regional City Programs that were held during Day 5 and Day 6 of the CTBUH 10th Congress, the CTBUH Canada Chapter held a series of sessions over those 2 days in Toronto. Sessions included presentations of ongoing and proposed tall building projects in the city of Toronto, technical innovations that have come out of Canada and walking tours showcasing these innovations and project sites.
Kinetica's Michael Montgomery gave a presentation on the details of the Viscoelastic Coupling Damper and its applications in one of the sessions, and later Constantin Christopoulos showcased a series of tests being conducted on the VCD at the University of Toronto's Structural Testing Facilities.
Click on the pictures below to see snapshots from the event:
23 SEP 2019
Kinetica's Constantin Christopoulos will be giving a talk at the CTBUH 10th World Congress in Chicago
Professor Constantin Christopoulos will be speaking on the topic of Distributed Coupling Dampers for Efficient and High-Performing Tall Building Structural Design during the CTBUH 10th World Congress in Chicago. The talk will be a part of a workshop on Tall Building Structures, which will also be chaired by Michael Montgomery.
Details are as follows:
Date: Monday, 28 October 2019
Time: 1pm - 5pm
Location: Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel at the Aqua Tower
24 JUN 2019
Business Mirror covers the use of the Viscoelastic Coupling Dampers (VCD) in the Seasons Residences project.
Business Mirror explains how Federal Land Inc. has deployed the Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) as part of The Seasons Residences project, improving earthquake protection and increasing safety. A total of 256 VCD panels will be installed in the 4 high-rise condominium buildings. Click here to read the whole article.
Visit the Seasons Residences website to know more about the upcoming development in Manila.
For more information about the VCD and how it works, visit our Product page.
16 may 2019
The Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) is featured in the Manila Times
The Manila Times details the talk held by Federal Land, a property developer in Manila, where topics like earthquake preparedness, structural design and the VCD were discussed with regards to the Seasons Residences project. Keisuke Sugihara of PNS Advanced Steel Technology, Inc. and Raul Manlapig of Ove Arup & Hong Kong Ltd. gave the talk.
Click here to read the whole article.
Visit the Seasons Residences website to know more about the upcoming development in Manila.
For more information about the VCD and how it works, visit our Product page.
06 may 2019
The Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) is featured in the ABS-CBN news
ABS-CBN publishes an article describing the use of VCDs in the The Seasons Residences project in Manila. Keisuke Sugihara, general manager of PNS Advanced Steel Technology, our manufacturing partner, explains how buildings can be made more earthquake resistant using VCD technology. The article also details how the VCDs reduce shaking caused by quakes and strong winds during typhoons. Click here to read the whole article.
Visit the Seasons Residences website to know more about the upcoming development in Manila.
For more information about the VCD and how it works, visit our Product page.
03 may 2019
The Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) is featured in the Philippine Star newspaper
The VCD is featured in the Philippine Star for its use in The Seasons Residences 4-tower project in Manila. Recent earthquakes in the Philippines have pushed property developers and investors to pay more attention to technologies that will help keep high-rise buildings safe and secure, and the VCD is one of those innovations. Click here to view the article.
Visit the Seasons Residences website to know more about the upcoming development in Manila.
For more information about the VCD and how it works, visit our Product page.
15 APR 2019
Kinetica’s Michael Montgomery visits the Season’s Residences showroom in Manila, Philippines
Kinetica's Michael Montgomery recently visited the showroom at the sales center for The Seasons Residences. The showroom informed potential buyers about the significant benefits that the VCD brings to the premium condominium development and how the state-of-the-art damping technology will protect them from earthquakes and strong winds. Included in the showroom were life-size exhibits and scale models of the Seasons Residences towers built by Nippon Steel Engineering.
Visit the Seasons Residences website to know more about the upcoming development in Manila.
For more information about the VCD and how it works, visit our Product page.
Click on the pictures below to see snapshots from the visit:
10 apr 2019
Kinetica wins the Innovation Award at the 2019 CTBUH Tall+Innovation Conference
The Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) has won at the 2019 Tall+Urban Innovation Conference hosted by the CTBUH in Shenzhen, China. Kinetica's Constantin Christopolous and Michael Montgomery were present to accept the award in the Innovation Awards category. Congratulations to the team and Kinetica for winning the award! See this and the other nominated projects here.
Click on the pictures below to see snapshots from the events:
13 JAN 2019
Kinetica’s team publishes a new paper in the American Society of Civil Engineers
Kinetica's Deepak Pant, Michael Montgomery and Professor Constantin Christopoulos has published a paper entitled, "Full-Scale Testing of a Viscoelastic Coupling Damper for High-Rise Building Applications and Comparative Evaluation of Different Numerical Models" in the journal American Society of Civil Engineers.
Read the whole paper here - Full-Scale Testing of a Viscoelastic Coupling Damper for High-Rise Building Applications and Comparative Evaluation of Different Numerical Models
If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to contact Michael Montgomery.
05 DEC 2018
The Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) wins in the CTBUH’s Innovation Awards Category
Kinetica's Michael Montgomery will be making a presentation at the CTBUH Tall+Urban Innovation Conference for the VCD technology which has been placed in the Innovation Awards category. The Conference will be held on 8-10 April in Shenzhen, China.
You can view the list of award winners here.
05 DEC 2018
YC Condominiums is one of the winning projects in the CTBUH’s Structural Engineering Award category!
As part of the 2019 Tall+Urban Innovation Conference which will be held on the 8-10 April in Shenzhen, China, Kinetica's Michael Montgomery and RJC's Kevin MacLean will be making a presentation for the YC Condominiums' award in the Structural Engineering category.
You can view the list of award winners here.
04 sep 2018
Kinetica’s Michael Montgomery visits Nippon Steel and Sumikin Engineering VCD manufacturing facility
Kinetica's Dr. Michael Montgomery visited Nippon Steel and Sumikin Engineering's VCD manufacturing facility to inspect several VE Damper Panels that were bound for The Connor at Greenhills project located in Manila, Philippines.
The 55-storey condominium will utilize 24 VCDs consisting of 48 VE Damper Panels, allowing the structure to mitigate against strong winds and earthquakes. Dr. Montgomery inspected the VE Panels with colleagues from the aforementioned steel manufacturing partner and from structural engineering firm SY² + Associates Inc.
Click on the pictures below to see snapshots from the events:
05 May 2018
The Park Central Towers in Makati, Philippines rises above grade
Construction of the Park Central Towers in Makati City, Philippines has risen above grade. The towers at 70 and 58 stories high, are scheduled for completion by March 2025. Developer Ayalaland Premier, decided to use 32 VCDs for each tower, for a total of 64 VCDs. They are located in 4 four-storey outrigger wall coupling the Reinforced Concrete core to the exterior columns.
Kinetica's Michael Montgomery and Deepak Pant took the opportunity to visit the site during their visit to Makati City.
Click on the pictures below to see snapshots from the events:
04 May 2018
Kinetica was at the LA Tall Building Structural Design Council 2018 Conference
Kinetica's Mike, Deepak and Jack were at the LA Tall Building Structural Design Council 2018 Conference where they met with industry leaders and where the latest innovations in tall building seismic design were showcased.
23 APR 2018
UrbanToronto details the Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) technology at YC Condos
Real estate and construction news website UrbanToronto has written an article detailing the use of VCD technology in the YC Condos and how it has improved the wind and seismic performance of the structure. Kinetica's Joel Foo brought writer Marcus Mitanis around the site to inspect the installation locations of the VCDs and to explain how the damping system works.
You can read the whole article here.
24 MAR 2018
The CTBUH conducts a tour of YC Condominiums
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats hosted a tour of YC Condos. Kevin Maclean of RJC Structural Engineers and Michael Montgomery of Kinetica, amongst others, acted as tour guides for the duration of the tour.
The entire tour was split into several groups which were led to different locations around the site. One of these sites was the VCDs installed on the 27th floor, where Montgomery and Maclean explained how the VCDs were designed and implemented throughout the building.
The full article by the CTBUH can be read here.
25 NOV 2017
The Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) technology to be utilized in Toronto's landmark YC Condominiums
Kinetica is pleased to announce that its ground-breaking Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) technology will be used in the landmark YC Condominiums in Toronto. The VCD technology will ensure the slender 66-storey residential tower is resilient to unwanted vibrations caused by high winds and earthquakes. The building, to be located at Yonge and College in Toronto, also brings the technology to a mere 10 minute walk from where it was developed at the University of Toronto's Department of Civil Engineering.
Kinetica's VCD is manufactured by Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering and utilizes 3M Viscoelastic Material, the first ever damping technology used in tall buildings, which has now been re-engineered for hyper-efficient use in modern skyscrapers without occupying any architectural space. When used in the structural design, the resulting design is safer, more efficient and, in addition, towers can potentially be built taller than ever before. For YC Condominiums, 42 reinforced concrete beams on 21 levels will be replaced by Kinetica's VCDs in order to mitigate wind vibrations under frequent storms, a critical part of the structural design for Toronto-based engineers, Read Jones Christoffersen. It will also be the only known tall building in Toronto with an earthquake protection system.
"The VCDs in YC Condos allowed us to provide the added damping to the building that was desired for the structural design and allowed us to maximize our sellable square footage", said Ben Rogowski, Executive Vice President of Canderel. "Canderel is a forward thinking developer and therefore we wanted to lead the industry in embracing this new development in high-rise building design". This local Toronto innovation also has worldwide reach. Kinetica recently signed a distribution agreement with Shanghai Lead Dynamic Engineering Inc. during the Ontario Premier's Trade mission in China in order to bring this technology to China, the worlds largest tall building market with a potential annual VCD market of over $50 million.
Kinetica is a Toronto-based engineering company changing the way tall buildings are built throughout the world. Kinetica's objectives are to improve the performance and resiliency of buildings and infrastructure through the use of advanced engineering technologies. Kinetica markets and provides technical support to engineers wanting to use the VCD technology.
VCDs were developed over the past decade at the University of Toronto with industry-leading engineers and manufacturing partners Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering and 3M. Development of this technology has received numerous awards and garnered generous support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Ontario Centers of Excellence (OCE), MITACS, Heffernan Fellowship, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, Innovations and Partnerships Office and Impact Center at the University of Toronto.
20 nov 2017
The VCDs arrive at the Emerald Tower project in Manila!
Park Central Towers by Ayala Land Premier in Manila, Philippines has recently received a shipment of 112 VCDs for use in the high-profile 58 and 68 story towers. The VCDs will provide the finished structure with increased resilience against strong hurricane-level winds and earthquake vibrations. The installation of the dampers will begin shortly.
Click on the pictures below to see snapshots from the events:
19 oct 2017
Kinetica’s Michael Montgomery will be attending the CTBUH 2017 Conference in Sydney!
Kinetica's Michael Montgomery will be attending the CTBUH 2017 Conference in Sydney! The conference will be taking place from October 30th to November 3rd.
If you wish to schedule a meeting, feel free to email him at m.montgomery@kineticadynamics.com
18 may 2017
Scientific publisher Nature has written a brief expose on Kinetica in their University Spin-offs article
The scientific journal Nature has featured Kinetica in an expose about different technologies that are used in the construction industry.
Read the whole article here.
22 MAR 2017
An Analytical Study on the Dynamic Properties of Viscoelastically Coupled Shear Walls in High-Rise Buildings
Kinetica's Deepak Pant, Michael Montgomery and Professor Constantin Christopoulos have published a new paper in the journal of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Abstract: An innovative method of using viscoelastic (VE) dampers as coupling members between reinforced concrete shear walls has been recently developed for enhancing the wind performance and seismic resilience of tall buildings. Although three-dimensional finite-element models are used for the final design of such systems, fundamental analytical models that can be used to gain broader insights into their dynamic response have not yet been developed. Therefore, in this paper a sixth-order partial differential equation governing the dynamic properties of tall shear walls coupled using VE dampers is derived by explicitly taking into account the stiffness of the connecting elements as well as that of the slab directly above the dampers. The governing equation is solved numerically using the Taylor series expansion method and the periods and added damping ratios in various modes of vibration are evaluated. It is found that for given frequency independent VE material properties, the added damping ratios of such systems are independent of the mass of the building. Analyses using a commercially available VE damper by taking into account the frequency dependency of the VE material revealed that progressively higher maximum damping ratios are achieved in higher modes of vibration. Based on the conclusions derived through the analytical formulation, recommendations are provided for enhancing the efficiency of VE dampers in tall buildings.
Read and download the paper here.
12 JAN 2017
Kinetica’s Michael Montgomery presented a paper at WCEE 2017 in Santiago, Chile
At the 16th World Conference in Earthquake Engineering held in Santiago, Chile on January 12th, Michael Montgomery from Kinetica presented a paper on the next generation super resilient design of a Megatall building in a seismic zone using VCDs. The paper was co-written with colleagues Dr. Deepak Pant, Professor Constantin Christopoulos from the University of Toronto, Mr. Dennis Poon and Dr. Bo Xu from Thornton Tomasetti - New York City.
Read and download the paper here.
16 OCT 2016
Kinetica’s Michael Montgomery presented a paper at WCEE 2017 in Santiago, Chile
Kinetica's Michael Montgomery is at the 2016 CTBUH Conference in Shenzhen. The conference will proceed onward to Guangzhou on the 18th October, and then finally to Hong Kong on the following day.
20 apr 2016
Kinetica is featured in the Financial Post
Why an earthquake may not have you fleeing your home in the future - Kinetica and the VCD are featured in a story from the Financial Post about earthquakes and the importance of technologies like the VCD in mitigating such disasters.
Read the article here.
27 nov 2015
Kinetica is featured in the University of Toronto newsfeed
The University of Toronto News website has written an expose on Kinetica and its use of the Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) technology in the upcoming high-rise project YC Condos.
To read the full article, visit this link.
Second from the bottom right - Dr. Constantin Christopoulos, President (Kinetica) and Bottom right - Masaki Nakajima, General Manager, Shanghai Lead Dynamic Engineering Inc.
09 nov 2015
Kinetica signs memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Dynamic Engineering in China
Kinetica and Shanghai Lead Dynamic Engineering have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to actively promote and to expand the Chinese market of the VCD technology for high-rise buildings over the next three years. Find further information in the press release.
13 May 2015
Join Kinetica in contributing to the Nepal Earthquake Relief Efforts
lease join Kinetica in donating to the Nepal Earthquake relief efforts and support the Nepalese peopel in building resilient structures for the future. The Canadian government has pledged to match Canadian donors 1:1 until May 25th.
02 may 2015
The YC Condominiums project team wins at BILD GTA
Congratulations to all of those involved in the high-rise of the year, YC Condos by Canderel Residential in 2015. The winners were announced at the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) awards in the Greater Toronto Area. Kinetica has enjoyed working with the entire project team for this great development in downtown Toronto.
Left to Right: Daniel Snodgrass, Michael Montgomery, Constantin Christopoulos, Tibor Kokai and Kevin MacLean.
05 dec 2014
Kinetica celebrates the groundbreaking of the YC Condominiums in downtown Toronto
Kinetica was at the groundbreaking for the YC Condos in downtown Toronto. Located at Yonge and College, adjacent to Canada’s tallest residential building Aura, this slender 66-storey skyscraper will be one of Toronto's skyline's most prominant towers. The developer of the tower is Canderel Residential, with architecture by Graziani + Corazza Architects and structural engineering by Read Jones Christoffersen Consulting Engineers. See a picture below of Kinetica’s Dr. Constantin Christopoulos and Dr. Michael Montgomery with the RJC design team Dr. Tibor Kokai, Kevin MacLean and Daniel Snodgrass.
04 nov 2014
Kinetica's Constantin Christopoulos speaks at the CTBUH
Dr. Constantin Christopoulos of Kinetica speaks about structural innovations developed for tall buildings developed in Toronto and now being used throughout the world at the CTBUH - Canada - November Event - Imports and Aquisitions. Find a summary of the event from the CTBUH here and coverage of the event from the Canadian Consulting Engineer Magazine here.
15 nov 2013
Viscoelastic Coupling Damper in the Journal of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics
"Viscoelastic coupling dampers (VCDs) for enhanced wind and seismic performance of high-rise buildings" was published in the December 2013 Journal of Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics. Download the article here.
28 mar 2013
Video for Presentation of the Innovative Viscoelastic Coupling Damper (VCD) for Tall Buildings
University of Toronto Professor Constantin Christopoulos presents the Innovative Coupling Damper for Tall Buildings at the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) in Shanghai - September 12, 2012.