Tuned Liquid Damper

The aim of this paper is to show the effectiveness of a tuned liquid damper (TLD). TLD can be used in building structures to damp structural vibrations. A Tuned liquid damper is water confined in a container, usually placed on top of a building that uses the sloshing energy of the water to reduce the dynamic response of the system when it is subjected to excitation. The experimental setup models a building using PASCO beams and trusses and uses moveable base, powered by a motor, to simulate an earth quake. The sensor used in the experiment is an accelerometer that measures the acceleration at the top of the structure when subjected to vibrations in the presence and absence of a TLD. Vernier DAQ in conjecton with LabVIEW was used for data acquisition from the accelerometer. Frequency range around the resonant frequency (first natural frequency) was considered for excitation in both the cases. The outcome of the experiment was that the TLD effectively dampened the vibrations (up to 80% reduction in vibration) when excited and the dampening effect was found to be maximum around the resonance frequency. An attempt has also been made to theoretically model the system in the absence and presence of TLD.