Tuned liquid column gas damper in structural control: The salient features of a general purpose damping device and its application in buildings, bridges, and dams

Abstract

Tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) show excellent energy and vibration absorbing capabilities appropriate for applications in wind- and earthquake engineering. The objective of this chapter is to demonstrate the outstanding features of the proposed Tuned Liquid Column Gas Damper (TLCGD) and present its wide spectrum of applications of three design alternatives. Among others it includes base isolation of structures, applications to lightly damped asymmetric buildings and other vibration prone structures like bridges (even under traffic loads) and large arch-dams as well as simple, ready to use design guidelines for optimal absorber placement and tuning. The evident features of TLCGDs are no moving mechanical parts, cheap and easy implementation into civil engineering structures, simple modification of the natural frequency and even of the damping properties, low maintenance costs, little additional weight in those cases where a water reservoir is required, e.g., for the sake of fire fighting, and a performance comparable to that of TMDs of the spring-mass- (or pendulum-)-dashpot type.