• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.1481-1501
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• 2015

MR-TLCD (Magneto-Rheological Tuned Liquid Column Damper) is a new developed vibration control device, which combines the traditional passive control property with active controllability advantage. Based on traditional TLCD governing equation, this study further considers MR-fluid viscosity in the equation and by transforming the non-linear damping term into an equivalent linear damping, a solution can be obtained. In order to find a countable set of parameters for the design of the MR-TLCD system and also to realize its applicability to structures, a series of experimental test were designed and carried out. The testing programs include the basic material properties of the MR-fluid, the damping ratio of a MR-TLCD and the dynamic responses for a frame structure equipped with the MR-TLCD system subjected to strong ground excitations. In both the analytical and experimental results of this study, it is found that the accurately tuned MR-TLCD system could effectively reduce the dynamic response of a structural system.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.629-646
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• 2013

One of the most common solutions adopted to reduce vibrations of skyscrapers due to wind or earthquake action is to add external damping devices to these structures, such as a TMD (Tuned Mass Damper) or TLCD (Tuned Liquid Column Damper). It is well known that a TLCD device introduces on the structure a nonlinear damping force whose effect decreases when the amplitude of its motion increases. The main objective of this paper is to describe a Hardware-in-the-Loop test able to validate the effectiveness of the TLCD by simulating the real behavior of a tower subjected to the combined action of wind and a TLCD, considering also the nonlinear effects associated with the damping device behavior. Within this test procedure a scaled TLCD physical model represents the hardware component while the building dynamics are reproduced using a numerical model based on a modal approach. Thanks to the Politecnico di Milano wind tunnel, wind forces acting on the building were calculated from the pressure distributions measured on a scale model. In addition, in the first part of the paper, a new method for evaluating the dissipating characteristics of a TLCD based on an energy approach is presented. This new methodology allows direct linking of the TLCD to be directly linked to the increased damping acting on the structure, facilitating the preliminary design of these devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.842-849
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• 2009

The objective of this study is to investigate design parameters of a tuned liquid column damper(TLCD), which is affected by various excitation amplitudes, through shaking table test. Design parameters of a TLCD are examined based on the equivalent tuned mass damper(TMD) model of a TLCD, in which the nonlinear damping of a TLCD is transposed to equivalent viscous damping. Shaking table test is carried out for a TLCD specimen subjected to harmonic waves with various amplitudes. Transfer functions are ratios of liquid displacement of TLCD and control force produced by a TLCD, respectively, with respect to the acceleration excited by a shaking table. They are derived based on the equivalent TMD model of a TLCD. Then, the variation of design parameters according to the excitation amplitude is examined by comparing analytical transfer functions with experimental ones. Finally, the dissipation energy due to the damping of a TLCD, which is experimentally observed from the shaking table test, is examined according to the excitation amplitude. Comparisons between test results and analytical transfer functions showed that natural frequencies of TLCD and the ratio of the liquid mass in a horizontal column to the total liquid mass does not depend on the excitation amplitude, while the damping ratio of a TLCD increases with larger excitation amplitudes.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.85-91
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• 2003

TLCD is a good alternative to TMD for control of structures because of its cost efficiency, ease of installation, little maintenance requirement, potential for multiple usage, and ease of re-tuning. In this study, the control performances of TMD and TLCD are evaluated and compared for seismically excited structures. Results show that TLCD is more effective than TMD for interstory drift control while TLCD is as effective as TMD for acceleration control. In special. it is shown that interstory drifts are maximally controlled in lower floors and accelerations are reduced most in upper floors. This indicates that TLCD is an effective controller for earthquake-induced structures in terms of structural safety as well as serviceability.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.1167-1176
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• 2009

The objective of this study is to investigate design parameters of a tuned liquid column damper(TLCD), which is affected by various excitation amplitude, through shaking table test. Design parameters of a TLCD are examined based on the equivalent tuned mass damper(TMD) model of a TLCD, in which the nonlinear damping of a TLCD is transposed to equivalent viscous damping. Shaking table test is carried out for a TLCD specimen subjected to harmonic waves with various amplitude. Transfer functions are ratios of liquid displacement of TLCD and control force produced by a TLCD, respectively, with respect to the acceleration excited by a shaking table. They are derived based on the equivalent TMD model of a TLCD. Then, the variation of design parameters according to the excitation amplitude is examined by comparing analytical transfer functions with experimental ones. Finally, the dissipation energy due to the damping of a TLCD, which is experimentally observed from the shaking table test, is examined according to the excitation amplitude. Comparisons between test results and analytical transfer functions showed that natural frequencies of TLCD and the ratio of the liquid mass in a horizontal column to the total liquid mass do not depend on the excitation amplitude, while the damping ratio of a TLCD increases with larger excitation amplitude.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.66-71
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• 2003

The semi-active TLCD system is investigated for control of responses of 3D irregular buildings under seismic excitations. The TLCD system is a special type of TMD system providing a performance similar to a TMD system but offers a number of practical advantages over the traditional TMD system. The equations of motion for the combined building and TLCD system are derived for multistory building structures with rigid floors and plan and elevation irregularities. Simulation results for control of two multistory moment-resisting space structures with vertical and plan irregularities show clearly that the semi-active TLCD control system reduces the responses of 3D irregular buildings subjected to earthquake ground motions efficiently.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.77-93
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• 1998

Some design formulas and design procedures for single and multiple tuned liquid column dampers (TLCDs) are proposed in this study. Previous studies show that if the properties of the TLCD system are properly selected then the TLCD could be as effective as the traditional tuned mass dampers. In addition, the TLCD system offers advantages such as flexibility in terms of installation, little maintenance required, and potentials for multiple usage, etc., which are incomparable by other mechanical types of dampers. In this paper, a set of optimal properties such as length and head loss of a TLCD system are derived under the assumption that the building vibrates in a dominate mode and is subjected to Gaussian white noise excitation. A design procedure for a single TLCD system will be illustrated and discussed. Due to the nonlinearity in the damping term, the TLCD system is sensitive to the loading intensity. This loading sensitivity could limit the application range of the TLCD system. It will be shown in this paper that such a nonlinear effect can be reduced by using multiple TLCDs. As a demonstrative example, the control effects on a flexible building modeled as a single degree-of-freedom system subjected to white noise excitation will be analyzed and discussed using single or multiple TLCDs.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.589-596
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• 2008

This study introduces the design of a bi-directional damper using a tuned mass damper(TMD) and a tuned liquid column damper(TLCD) and presents experimental verifications to confirm its control performance. The damper used in this study behaves as a TMD in a specific translational direction and acts as a TLCD in the other orthogonal direction. First, shaking table test is performed to investigate the coupled effect of control forces produced by TMD and TLCD. Then, the parameters that affect to dynamic characteristics of the proposed damper are quantitatively evaluated based on the experimental results. Testing results shows that the damper used in this study produces control forces coupled by TLCD and TMD, as it is excited by waves with an incident angle. Also, it is observed that the damper can be used to reduce bi-directional responses of building structures.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.193-207
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• 2000

The possible application of a spatially placed passive tuned liquid column damper system for suppressing coupled lateral-torsional responses of tall buildings is investigated in this paper. The wind loads acting on rectangular tall buildings are analytically expressed as 3-D stochastic model. Meanwhile, the 3-D responses of tall buildings may be coupled due to eccentricities between the stiffness and mass centers of the buildings. In these cases, torsional responses of the buildings are rather larger, and a TLCD system composed of several TLCD located near the sides of the buildings is more effective than the same TLCD placed at the building center in reducing both translational and torsional responses of the buildings. In this paper, extensive analytical and numerical work has been done to present the calculation method and optimize the parameters of such TLCD systems. The numerical examples show that the spatially placed TLCD system can reduce coupled along-wind, across-wind and torsional responses significantly with a fairly small mass ratio.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.275-281
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• 2015

In this study, vertical motion of a Tuned Liquid Column Damper(TLCD) is measured by a variable voltage measurement system in the electric field and design parameters of the TLCD are determined. First, nonlinear damping term of the TLCD is replaced as the equivalent viscous damping term. The natural frequency and damping ratio of dynamic characteristics of the TLCD are verified. In addition, a novel liquid level measurement system is developed for measuring vertical motion of the TLCD. For the experimental achievement, experimental characterizations of natural frequency and damping ratio of the TLCD are undertaken utilizing the developed variable voltage sensing. Also, shake table testing is performed to determine the dynamic characteristics of the TLCD. As a result, the feasibility of the proposed liquid level measurement system is verified by comparison with the capacitive type wavemeter.