Seismic control of multi degree of freedom structure outfitted with sloped bottom tuned liquid damper

Application of TLD in controlling the unwanted vibration of the structure is of practical importance. But the studies are limited to circular or rectangular shape TLD. However, it is not always feasible to use conventional shape TLD due to geometrical and space constraints of the building floor plan. Hence, a new shape of the tank is used in this study to verify its efficiency as a damping device. The present research is focused on controlling the vibration of a multidegree of freedom structure rigidly supporting a sloped bottom tuned liquid damper subjected to real earthquake ground excitation. Three actual earthquake ground motion classified in the category of low, intermediate, and high-frequency contents are used for the investigation. Numerical simulation of the TLD-structure coupled model is developed, which uses a finite element method to simulate sloshing in sloped bottom TLD and a spring-mass model to determine structural response. The confined liquid in TLD is discretized as a combination of three-node triangular and four-node quadrilateral finite elements. A parametric study is carried out on mass ratio and tuning ratio to study the effectiveness of TLD in controlling the structural vibration. It is observed that increase in mass ratio significantly control the top floor structural vibration. However, the tuning ratio plays an important role.