Experimental and numerical investigations of the dynamic interaction of tuned liquid damper-structure systems

Tuned liquid dampers (TLDs) are dynamic vibration absorbers used in suppressing structural vibration under wind and seismic loads. They are easy to design and implement with low cost and low maintenance. However, due to their highly nonlinear behavior, it is difficult to establish representative models for TLDs that are accurate for a wide range of operations. In this paper, a new numerical model (finite volume method/finite element method (FVM/FEM method)) is introduced by simultaneously using finite volume and finite element approaches to represent fluid and solid domains, respectively. In order to assess the accuracy of the FVM/FEM results a state of the art experimental technique, namely real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS), is used. During the RTHS the response from the TLD is obtained experimentally while the structure is modeled in a computer, thus capturing the TLD-structure interaction in real-time. By keeping the structure as the analytical model, RTHS offers a unique flexibility in that a wide range of influential parameters are investigated without modifications to the experimental setup. This is not possible in traditional shake-table dynamic tests where a physical model of the structure needs to be built and tested together with the TLD. As a result, the verification of the numerical models for TLD-structure interaction available in the literature only consider a smaller, restricted dataset. In this study three numerical models from the literature are selected and together with the FVM/FEM developed here, the accuracies of these four models are assessed in comparison with RTHS results that consider a wide range of influential parameters. Results show that the proposed FVM/FEM model can accurately predict TLD behavior in both sinusoidal and ground motion forces and Yu's model is the most accurate among the investigated simplified models.