Author(s)

M. Pirner & S. Urushadze

Abstract

The new type of passive tuned liquid damper (TLD) relies on the motion of liquid inside a movable rectangular tank with two degrees of freedom (horizontal displacement and rotation). The authors study the influence of vessel horizontal motion and rotation on the damping of the vertical and horizontal vibrations of the footbridges. Keywords: liquid damper, damping, effectiveness of a liquid damper, vibration table, harmonic excitation. 1 Introduction The motion of liquids in containers has been studied in recent decades (see [1]) and simplified analysis been made on rectangular and cylindrical tanks [2], [13]. Numerous papers have been written on the motion of liquids both theoretically and experimentally; the studies being based on linear or nonlinear potential flow theory with the authors usually neglecting the influence of fluid viscosity (for details see [5]). This paper expands the application of sloshing dampers, formerly used only for the damping of horizontal motions of structures, to include the damping of rotary motion. The principal objective of this research was the ascertainment of the effectiveness of slosher damper damping. The verification of the application of Abramson’s computing model [11] and the possible application of slosher damper to the damping of the motions of bridges and footbridges was also investigated.

Keywords

liquid damper, damping, effectiveness of a liquid damper, vibration table, harmonic excitation.