Stochastic seismic performance evaluation of tuned liquid column dampers

The seismic performance of Tuned Liquid Column Dampers (TLCDs) for the passive control of flexible structures is investigated using random vibration analysis. A non-stationary stochastic process with frequency and amplitude modulation is used to represent the earthquake strong motion, and a simple equivalent linearization technique is used to account for the non-linear damping force in the TLCD. The governing equations of motion for the structure TLCD system are formulated and reduced to a first-order state vector equation, from which the differential equation for the system response covariance matrix is obtained. The TLCD performance is evaluated on the basis of selected structural response statistics, namely, the expected maximum and root-mean-square displacements, and root-mean-square absolute accelerations and interstorey shears. A parametric study and sensitivity analysis are conducted to assess the TLCD performance and identify critical design parameters. Illustrative examples are presented using SDOF and MDOF shear-beam structural models, a wide-banded stationary random base acceleration and two non-stationary random input ground motions representative of long- and short-duration ground accelerations with significant low-frequency content.