Investigating Performance of Tuned Liquid Damper Using Finite-Element Method Based on Lagrange and Hankel Functions with Nonlinear Boundary Conditions

Abstract

A numerical model was developed for studying the performance of a rectangular tuned liquid damper (TLD) and fluid–structure interaction. A TLD is a structure which dissipates excitation energy through the sloshing behavior of fluid inside a tank. To design this structure as an effective device, it should be investigated by considering different parameters such as frequency ratio, mass ratio, and structural damping ratio. For numerical modeling of the fluid, the finite-element method with nonlinear boundary conditions was developed. In this method, two types of shape functions are used: classic Lagrange shape functions, and new spherical Hankel shape functions. It was demonstrated that using the new functions with fewer elements than the classic method, the solution accuracy can be improved. After the numerical modeling of the fluid in the tank, the response of the structure, namely the displacement and acceleration, was calculated. The values of the parameters that produced the most effective TLD were obtained. To examine the accuracy and applicability of the algorithm, the numerical results were compared with available experimental data. The results indicated that the proposed model has the capability to study TLD performance with good accuracy.