Comparison of performance of different tuned liquid column dampers (TLCDs)

Abstract

Many of the modern slender and flexible structures are highly susceptible to wind-and earthquake-induced vibrations, which may result in damage to these structures. Of late tuned liquid column dampers (TLCD) has drawn significant attention of researchers. In TLCD, the motion of liquid column in a U-tube container counteracts the forces acting on the structure resulting in reduction of structural response. The advantages of TLCD include low cost and maintenance. There are many varieties of TLCDs proposed for vibration control. In this study, the efficiency in vibration suppressionof four different types of passive TLCDs has been compared. These are U-shaped TLCD, liquid column vibration absorber (LCVA), V-shaped TLCD and tuned liquid column ball damper (TLCBD). For this purpose, the response of an SDOF system with and without TLCDis evaluated when subjected to harmonic excitation of varying frequencies and excitation levels. Transfer functions are evaluated for uncontrolled and controlled (i.e., with TLCD) cases by using an equivalent linearization approach for the non-linear TLCD damping. Further, a numerical method is also used for solving equations of motion involving non-linear damping of TLCDs. Results are presented in terms of percentage reduction in SDOF system response. The results of this work demonstrate that TLCBD has better performance when compared to other TLCDs.