Bimodal vibration control of seismically excited structures by the liquid column vibration absorber

Abstract

The possibility of controlling two modes of structural vibration due to earthquake excitation by considering the sloshing action in the vertical limbs of the liquid column vibration absorber (LCVA) has been explored in this paper. The structure has been modeled as a linear, viscously damped multi-degree-of-freedom (m.d.f.) system. The governing differential equations of motion for the damper liquid and for the coupled structure-LCVA system have been derived from dynamic equilibrium. The nonlinear orifice damping in the LCVA has been linearized by a stochastic equivalent linearization technique. A displacement transfer function formulation for the structure-LCVA system has been presented. The study has been carried out on a 2-d.f. example structure for which both the modes have significant contribution to the total response. The performance of the LCVA has been evaluated in the frequency domain with the base input characterized by a white noise power spectral density function and through a simulation study by subjecting the example structure-LCVA system to a recorded accelerogram. The results are compared with that of the liquid column damper and indicate superior performance of the LCVA. Furthermore, an LCVA has been designed for the example structure.