The performance of structure‐tuned liquid damper systems with different tank geometries

An equivalent mechanical model is employed to study structure‐tuned liquid damper (TLD) systems and evaluate the performance of TLDs having rectangular, vertical‐cylindrical or horizontal‐cylindrical tank shapes, which are placed at the top of a structure. TLD performance is evaluated in terms of effective damping, efficiency and robustness. This theoretical study is limited to small response amplitude such that the natural frequency and the effective mass of the TLD can be assumed to remain constant, while the damping of the TLD can be expressed in terms of equivalent amplitude‐dependent viscous damping. The tuning ratio, the structural response amplitude, the mass ratio and the liquid depth are varied to investigate their effects on TLD performance. Performance charts are developed and subsequently utilized to present findings from this study. It is found that small liquid depth ratio and large mass ratio lead to a more robust structure‐TLD system with small relative motion occurring between the structure and the vibration absorber. Comparisons of TLD performance, corresponding to the different tank geometries investigated, are made. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.