Controlling the Lateral Drift Using Hydraulic Systems

Current trends in the construction industry require tall building mainly due to lack of space. Several techniques are becoming available nowadays that are capable of reducing structural vibrations. One of these is the use of tuned liquid dampers (TLD); they are made of water tank(s) generally placed on the top of a building; they use the sloshing energy of water to reduce the dynamic vibration of a structure. This study investigates the use of TLDs and shows their effectiveness in reducing the seismic response of buildings subjected to horizontal acceleration. Multiple analyses were carried out to evaluate the effect of various parameters influencing the performance of TLDs. Analyses were conducted by varying the number of stories, mass and depth ratios. The structural response is then compared to other vibration reduction methods based on the maximum lateral drift. A method to model TLD in ETABS18 software is proposed and a step-by-step procedure to design TLDs is suggested. This procedure can be used by engineers and designers to design TLDs to reduce lateral displacements of buildings.

Keywords: Tall building; Structural vibration; Tuned liquid dampers; Seismic response; Displacement; Drift