Reduction in turbulence-induced non-linear dynamic vibration using tuned liquid damper (TLD)

TL;DR

This study develops a coupled non-linear turbulence-structure-damper model to simulate flow-induced vibrations and demonstrates that tuned liquid dampers effectively reduce vibrations in turbulent flow scenarios.

Contribution

It introduces a novel FV-FD framework for real-time simulation of turbulence-structure-damper interactions with TLD tuning strategies for vibration mitigation.

Findings

TLD tuned to vortex-shedding frequency reduces low-Reynolds number flow vibrations.

TLD tuned with multiple frequencies effectively dampens broadband turbulence-induced vibrations.

The model accurately predicts vibration reduction in flow-excited structures.

Abstract

In the present research work, an attempt is made to develop a coupled non-linear turbulence-structure-damper model in a finite volume-finite difference (FV-FD) framework. Tuned liquid damper (TLD) is used as the additional damping system along with inherent structural damping. Real-time simulation of flow-excited bridge box girder or chimney section and the vibration reduction using TLD can be performed using the developed model. The turbulent flow field around a structure is modeled using an OpenFOAM transient PISO solver, and the time-varying drag force is calculated. This force perturbs the structure, causing the sloshing phenomena of the attached TLD, modeled using shallow depth approximation, damping the flow-induced vibration of the structure. The structural motion with and without the attached TLD is modeled involving the FD-based Newmark-Beta method using in-house MATLAB codes. The TLD is tuned with the vortex-shedding frequency of the low-Reynolds number flows, and it is found to be reducing the structural excitation significantly. On the other hand, the high-Reynolds number turbulent flow exhibits a broadband excitation, for which by tuning the TLD with few frequencies obtained through investigations, a good reduction in vibration is observed.