Effectiveness of a 2D TLD and Its Numerical Modeling

The tuned liquid damper (TLD) is increasingly being used as an economical and effective dynamic vibration absorber to mitigate the dynamic response of structures. The ability to design a TLD to operate in two directions simultaneously is particularly attractive. In this paper the results of bidirectional (2D) structure-TLD tests are reported on. These include the free-surface motion, the resulting base shear forces, and the work done by bidirectional tuned liquid dampers (2D TLD) attached to simple structures and response displacements and accelerations of 2D structure-TLD systems. The importance of this experimental study is that it examines 2D structure-TLD behavior over a range of excitation amplitude values covering the practical range of serviceability accelerations for buildings subjected to wind loads. Experimental results are subsequently used to verify the applicability of a unidirectional structure-TLD numerical model to 2D structure-TLD analysis. Findings indicate that the structure-TLD model is capable of describing the structure-TLD response within the range of system response amplitudes experimentally tested.