The Control Performance of TLCD and TMD: Experimental Investigation

Use of tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) in mitigation of vibration on a flexible structure is receiving an increasing interest from researchers concerned with vibration control. Indeed, it is well known that the wider used device for control of flexible structures vibration is the tuned mass damper (TMD), however the TLCD is very attractive for the following features: low cost, easy adjustment, flexible installation. Based on that, this paper aims at developing a theoretical and experimental investigation of a flexible single degree of freedom system controlled by a TLCD. For instance a small scale SDOF shear model has been built in the Experimental Dynamic Laboratory of University of Palermo and equipped with same frequency TLCD. This model has been excited at the base with different harmonic excitations through a shaking table. The control performance of such a system will be compared with that of a TMD. Theoretical and experimental results for both systems will be discussed in this paper.