Tuned liquid dampers for controlling earthquake response of structures

✍ Scribed by Banerji, Pradipta; Murudi, Mohan; Shah, Arvind H.; Popplewell, Neil

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 177 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0098-8847
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9845(200005)29:5<587::aid-eqe926>3.0.co;2-i

✦ Synopsis

Numerical simulations of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) structure, rigidly supporting a tuned liquid damper (TLD) and subjected to both real and arti"cially generated earthquake ground motions, show that a properly designed TLD can signi"cantly reduce the structure's response to these motions. The TLD is a rigid, rectangular tank with shallow water in it. Its fundamental linear sloshing frequency is tuned to the structure's natural frequency. The TLD is more e!ective in reducing structural response as the ground excitation level increases. This is because it then dissipates more energy due to sloshing and wave breaking. A larger water-depth to tank-length ratio than previous studies suggested, which still falls within the constraint of shallow water theory, is shown to be more suitable for excitation levels expected in strong earthquake motions. A larger water-mass to structure-mass ratio is shown to be required for a TLD to remain equally e!ective as structural damping increases. Furthermore, the reduction in response is seen to be fairly insensitive to the bandwidth of the ground motion but is dependent on the structure's natural frequency relative to the signi"cant ground frequencies. Finally, a practical approach is suggested for the design of a TLD to control earthquake response.