Control performance of liquid column vibration absorbers

Abstract

This paper reports the study of the control performance and effectiveness of a new type of passive device—liquid column vibration absorber (LCVA). The LCVA, which allows the column cross-section to be non-uniform, is a variation of the tuned liquid column damper (TLCD). The LCVA provides great versatility and architectural adaptability, since its natural frequency is determined not only by the length of the liquid column, but also the geometric configuration. in this study, an unsteady and non-uniform flow equation for the LCVA is derived based on the Lagrange equation. It is assumed that the liquid flow is uniform in the horizontal and the vertical columns, respectively. The optimal head loss coefficient for the LCVA is derived explicitly under the condition that the LCVA's frequency is tuned to that of the structure. The control effectiveness of the LVCA is numerically analyzed and compared to that of the TLCD and the tuned mass damper (TMD). It is found that if properly designed the LCVA can be as effective as or even more effective than the TLCD.