Influence of Application of Tuned Liquid Dampers to Enhance Building Resistance to Earthquake

A Tuned Liquid Damper (TLD) is a passive damper that is capable of reducing the dynamic response of a structure to earthquake through an anti-phase sloshing fluid mechanism that has been settled. TLD can be very effective for structural stability if its parameters are designed properly. The parameters that determine the effectiveness of the TLD are mass ratio, which is the ratio of the liquid mass to the structure mass, and frequency ratio, which is the ratio of the sloshing frequency to the natural frequency of the structure. This study investigated the performance of TLD in a building under different time history characteristics, which are classified as Near-and Far-Fault Earthquakes. In addition, six excitation frequency ratios were also investigated. A 15-story building with and without TLD was modeled using SAP2000. The building model was tested with various excitation frequency ratios and various ground motion characteristics. The reduction of peak displacement under time history and excitation frequency ratios has been investigated. The results show that TLD will be more effective under far-fault earthquakes and also if it is subjected to a dynamic load that is close to resonant frequency (f_e/f_s ≈ 1).