A novel tuned liquid damper for vibration control in high-frequency structures

This paper presents a novel device as an alternative to the classical tuned liquid damper (TLD). Unlike conventional TLDs, the proposed device is capable of controlling the dynamic response of high-frequency structures and is therefore called a high-frequency tuned liquid damper (HF-TLD). In this device, the use of a series of springs capable of exerting a force on the liquid surface through a floating roof is proposed. The restoring force of these springs is added to the gravitational restoring force, increasing the natural frequency of the device. This is first demonstrated by an experimental characterization of the frequency response, showing that the HF-TLD is able to react in a frequency band starting at 2.5Hz. On the other hand, experimental results under seismic loading demonstrate that the HF-TLD is effective in reducing the maximum relative displacements of a structure having a fundamental frequency of 3 Hz. This reduction averages 20% when 5% of the structural mass is assigned to the device.