TUNED LIQUID DAMPERS UNDER LARGE-AMPLITUDE EXCITATION

Rectangular tuned liquid dampers were investigated through shaking tab le tests and numerical modeling for large amplitude excitation. The re sults confirm earlier work undertaken for small amplitude excitation a nd considerably contribute to the body of knowledge describing tank be havior under large amplitude excitation. The random choice method of s olving the fully nonlinear shallow-water-wave equations captures the u nderlying physical phenomenon adequately, including wave breaking, for most of the frequency range of interest. The tank behaves as a harden ing spring system due to the liquid sloshing motion, and this trend is enhanced as excitation amplitude increases. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.