A toroidal tuned liquid column damper for multidirectional ground motion‐induced vibration control
Hao Ding, Jinting Wang, Li‐Qiao Lu, Fei Zhu
Abstract
In this study, a toroidal tuned liquid column damper (TTLCD), which is composed of outer shell, inner shell, and L-shaped baffles, is creatively proposed to control multidirectional vibration of structures. With a toroidal shape, the proposed TTLCD can act as several equivalent TLCDs in arbitrary directions due to its axial symmetry. First, the configuration of the TTLCD is illustrated in detail. Second, the equations of motion are developed for the TTLCD based on the Lagrange dynamic equations, and thus the natural frequency may be directly calculated based on the effective length. Finally, shaking table tests are performed for a single-degree-of-freedom (single-DOF) shear frame and a three-DOF frame in different excitation directions with the proposed TTLCD and conventional TLCD, respectively. The test results indicate that the proposed TTLCD may effectively dampen the vibration in any given direction and simultaneously suppress multidirectional vibration of multiple-DOF structure, whereas the control efficiency of conventional TLCD shows clear difference in its main control direction and other directions.