VIBRATION CONTROL BY M U L T I P L E T U N E D L I Q U I D

DAMPERS (MTLDs)
By Y. Fujino, ~ Member, ASCE, and L. M. Sun2

ABSTRACT: The multiple tuned liquid dampers (MTLDs), which consist of a num-
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ber of TLDs whose first natural frequencies of sloshing are distributed over a certain
range around the natural frequency of a structure, are studied. The simulations on
the liquid motion in the MTLDs as well as the MTLDs-structure interaction are
carried out by using a shallow water-wave theory. Then, two types of experiments,
a forced-excitationexperiment and an MTLDs-structure interaction experiment are
conducted. The experiments and the simulation studies show that the MTLDs are
efficient in the small amplitude range than the conventional TLDs, which have a
single natural sloshing frequency, while the MTLDs efficiency is more or less the
same level to that of the conventional TLDs in large amplitude range because of
the damping nonlinearity of liquid motion. It is also shown that the control efficiency
is not degraded, even though there is some offset in the tuning. This is the most
significant point in actual engineering application. Finally, the application of the
MTLDs to a high-rise building is presented as an example.

INTRODUCTION

A tuned liquid d a m p e r ( T L D ) is a passive control device that consists of

rigid tank(s) filled with liquid to suppress the horizontal vibration of struc-
tures. D a m p e r s utilizing liquid m o t i o n (Modi et al. 1987; K a r e e m et al.
1987; Fujino et al. 1988; Sun et al. 1989; F u j i n o et al. 1992) for civil en-
gineering structures have recently attracted increasing interest due to a
number of advantages, such as low cost, almost zero trigger level, easy
adjustment of natural frequency, easy installation in existing structures, and
so forth. Indeed, the actual application of the T L D to buildings, towers,
and bridges has been r e p o r t e d (Fujii et al. 1988; N o j i et al. 1988; Y o n e d a
et al. 1989; U e d a et al. 1990; W a k a h a r a et al. 1991). T h e T L D tanks usually
become small for several reasons: the space r e q u i r e m e n t ; the n e e d to tune
its sloshing frequency to the natural frequency of the structure as well as
to control the damping of liquid sloshing; and the lighter density of liquid
in the T L D than that of steel, which is widely used as the mass in a t u n e d
mass dampers (TMD), Thus, the n u m b e r of T L D s (tanks) installed in a
structure ranges from several to a h u n d r e d or m o r e (Fig. 1) to m e e t the
required total mass of liquid. In these T L D s , water d e p t h has b e e n set to
be equal to each other.
Recently, the use of multiple T M D s , ( M T M D s ) , which consist of a num-
ber of small T M D s whose natural frequencies are distributed over a certain
range around the fundamental natural frequency of the structure (Fig. 2),
has been p r o p o s e d by Igusa and Xu (1990, 1991, 1992). The effectiveness
and sensitivity of the M T M D s were investigated numerically by Yamaguchi
and H a r p o r n c h a r (1992). A b e and F u j i n o (1993a, b) p r o p o s e d closed-form
design formulas for M T M D . These studies r e p o r t e d that the M T M D s are

~Prof., Dept. of Civ. Engrg., The Univ. of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113 Japan.
2Res. Engr., Tech. Res. Inst., Obayashi Corp., Tokyo, 204 Japan; Formerly Res.
Fellow, Dept. of Civ. Engrg., The Univ. of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113 Japan.
Note. Discussion open until May 1, 1994. To extend the closing date one month,
a written request must be filed with the ASCE Manager of Journals. The manuscript
for this paper was submitted for review and possible publication on May 18, 1992.
This paper is part of the Journal of Structural Engineering, Vol. 119, No. 12, De-
cember, 1993. 9 ISSN 0733-9445/93/0012-3482/$1.00 + $.15 per page. Paper
No. 4069.
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J. Struct. Eng. 1993.119:3482-3502.

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FIG. 1. Tuned Liquid Damper Installed in Marine Tower in Yokohama

RG. 2. Igusa's Multiple Tuned Mass Damper (MTMD)

very efficient, even when the damping of each individual TMD in the MTMDs
is low. An MTMDs is more efficient than a conventional TMD when there
is offset in the tuning of the frequency, indicating that the sensitivity of the
MTMDs to the tuning condition is very much weakened.
As mentioned previously, the number of TLD tanks is generally large.
The sloshing frequency of each individual TLD can be easily changed by
varying in liquid depth. In a TLD, inherent liquid damping is rather small,
at least in the range of sloshing with small amplitudes if nets or other devices
to create liquid damping are not used. Hence, the idea of the MTMDs is
very suitable to the TLD. It can be expected that a multiple TLDs will
possess better performance when compared with a conventional TLD where
the same liquid depth is employed in all the TLDs. The conventional TLD
is hereafter referred to the single TLD (STLD), since it has a single natural
frequency.
The objective of this study is to demonstrate the efficiency of MTLD.
First, numerical simulations using a TLD-structure interaction model are
conducted and experiments follow.
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 PARAMETRIC STUDIES BY TLD-STRUCTURE MODEL
To understand the characteristics of the MTLDs, the parameters that
affect the effectiveness of the MTLDs were studied numerically. A single-
degree-of-freedom structure with a multiple TLDs was considered (Fig. 3).
The rectangular tank filled with plain water were employed as the TLDs.
A theoretical model proposed by the writers was used in the simulation.
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This model is based on the shallow-water-wave theory and was recently

extended to accommodate wave breaking (Sun et al. 1992). The simulation
for the TLD-structure interaction is similar to that described in the paper
by Chaiseri et al. (1989) and the steady-state structural responses under
harmonic excitations were computed.
As shown in Fig. 4, the frequency distributions of the MTLDs can be
characterized by three quantities: the central frequency fo, the frequency-
band width AR, and the frequency spacing 13;. They are defined as

fN + f,
fo - 2 ................................................ (1)

AR f N -f,
fo ............................................... (2)
I~, = Y,§ - fi ............................................... (3)
respectively, where f/ = natural sloshing frequency of the ith individual
TLD; fl and fN = lowest and the highest f;, respectively; and N denotes
the number of TLDs. For studying the sensitivity of the MTLDs under an
off-tuning situation, the off-tuning parameter A~/is defined as

TLD1 TLDN

ks
F

Structure ms
Fe

FIG. 3. Multiple Tuned Liquid Damper (MTLD)

AR = f~fl
fo 61
I-, --I

fo=fl+f.N TLDN
TLDI 2
-O--<3 .... O--O ..... H .... 43 .... 43 O--'~
fl f2 fi fi+l fo fs fN-~ fN f

= f;+l-~ At= ~'~

fo

FIG. 4. FrequencyDistribution of MTLD

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 A~ = fs-fo
- - . .............................................. (4)
fo
where f, = natural frequency of the structure.
In the simulation, a number of rectangular tanks of the same size (the
length 2a = 59.0 cm and the width b = 33.5 cm) were used. The individual
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TLD was designed to make the MTLDs have equal frequency spacing, 13i
= (fN -- f a ) / ( N - 1) = 13. The natural frequency of each TLD is expressed
by the linear theory as

f/ = 2w V 2 a ......................................

The TLD with required f~ was achieved by varying the liquid depth hi. Since
TLD tanks of the same size were used, the mass and the damping for each
individual TLD were slightly different owing to the variation of the liquid
depth. The SDOF structure, with the natural frequency f~ = 0.458 Hz and
the damping ratio of ~ = 0.32%, was excited by an external harmonic force
with constant amplitude. The mass ratio ix, i.e., the ratio of the total mass
of liquid in the MTLDs to that of the structure, is 1%.
The simulations were carried out with the aim of studying the effects of
several parameters of the MTLDs on its performance, i.e. number of TLDs
N, the frequency band with AR, and the off-tuning factor A-y. To avoid the
nonlinear effects of the liquid motion, a very small external harmonic force
was used in the simulation. This force was determined first such that the
structural amplitude without any damper A o is 0.1 cm at the resonance. So
the liquid sloshing in the MTLDs can be considered to be almost linear
under such a small base amplitude. Finally, the effects of the nonlinearities
of the MTLDs due to the larger amplitude excitation were studied.

Number of TLDs N
The simulations for the MTLDs-structure interaction were conducted with
various numbers of TLDs (Table 1) and the results are shown in Fig. 5.
The central frequency of the MTLDs, fo, 0.458 Hz, is tuned to the structure.
The MTLDs are distributed in the frequency range of 0.90 -< fflfo <- 1.10,
i.e. the frequency band with AR is 0.2. For comparison, the response of the
structure with a single TLD (STLD) is also plotted in Fig. 5. Both the
MTLDs and the STLD have the same mass ratio Ix = 1%.
From the linear boundary layer theory, the damping ratio of liquid slosh-
ing can be approximately expressed as

TABLE 1. Simulation Cases for Effects of Number of TLDs

fo f, no
Case name N AR (Hz) (Hz) (cm)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
S1.1 1 -- 0.458 0.458 0.1
S1.2 5 0.2 0.458 0.458 0.1
S1.3 11 0,2 0.458 0,458 0.1
S1.4 21 0,2 0.458 0.458 0.1
$1.5 31 0.2 0.458 0.458 0.1

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 0.020 T

.... N=I
............... N=5
. .N=11
. . . . . . p, ST,O

/\
A
E 0.015
o
.... N=21/\ / \
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. . . . . . . . ,
r
C
o
o.

rr8 O.OLO / / \
~6
2
0.005

t, i t I i I t

0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10

Frequency Ratio f/fs

FIG. 5. Effects of Number of MTLD

~; = ~ ~ 1 + .................................... (6)

where fTLD = natural frequency of TLD; and h and v = liquid depth and
the kinematic viscosity, respectively (Sun 1991). For TLD used herein, the
critical damping ratio of sloshing is about 1.5%. This value is lower than
the optimal one for the STLD ( ~ 6 % in the case of the mass ratio tx = 1%)
(Warburton and Ayorinde 1980). The frequency response of the structure
with the low-damping STLD has two local peaks around the frequency ratio
f/f,: 0.95 and 1.05. With the use of the MTLDs, the response curve changes
from a two-peak type (STLD) to a one-peak type (MTLD) and the maximum
response of the structure is noticeably reduced. The simulation shows that
the MTLDs is more efficient than the STLD.
The response curve has several local peaks when using five TLDs, then
becomes more flat when the TLD number N is increased to 11. The max-
imum structure response is slightly reduced with this increase in N. When
N is further increased to 21 or even 31, the response curves do not change
much. It is shown that the efficiency of the MTLDs is not sensitive to the
TLD numbers N if N exceeds a certain value. As shown in Fig. 5, MTLD
with N = 5 are very effective. So the most of the simulation cases in later
sections used N = 5.

Frequency Band Width, AR

Fig. 6 shows the effects of the frequency-band width AR. The simulation
cases are as described in Table 2. The structural responses with the MTLDs
for three cases, i.e., AR = 0.1 (0.95 < fJfo < 1.05); AR = 0.2 (0.90 <
~/fo < 1.05); and AR = 0.4 (0.80 < fJfo < 1.20) are computed. Note that
the MTLDs is tuned to the structure, namely, fo = fs. The number of the
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 0.020
SrLD:N=I
aFl~0.4
/ ........ MTLD: N=21

E 0.015
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~o
t-
o
""J - A
~, O.OLO
tr

0
2
0.005

i I | I i I i
0
0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10
Frequency Ratio (f/fs)
FIG. 6. Effects of Frequency Band of MTLD

TABLE 2. Simulation Cases for Effects of Frequenc Ratio Range of TLDs

r

.fo f, Ao
Case name N AR (Hz) (Hz) (cm)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
$2.1 1 0.458 0.458 0.1
$2.2 21 0.1 0.458 0.458 0.I
$2.3 21 0.2 0.458 0.458 0.1
$2.4 21 0.4 0.458 0.458 0.1

TLDs, N is 21. When the MTLDs with AR = 0.4 was used, the maximum
response located near the f/fs = 1.00 becomes even larger than that with
the STLD. This is probably because the MTLDs whose natural frequencies
are far from the structural frequency do not interact dynamically with the
structure, resulting in reduced effective mass in the MTLDs. The control
efficiencies for AR = 0.1 and 0.2 are better than that for AR = 0.4. There
must exist an optimal value in the band width of the natural frequency of
the MTLDs. Yamaguchi and Harpornchar (1993) reported that the optimal
frequency band width for an MTMDs is affected by the TMD number and
the damping, but AR usually is in the range about 0.1-0.2 for the mass
ratio 1%. The critical band width of the MTMDs to have multiple effec-
tiveness theoretically obtained by Abe and Fujino (1993a) is 0.122 for the
mass ratio 1%. When compared the results shown in Fig. 5, it is found that
the efficiency of the MTLDs is more sensitive to the frequency band width
AR than to the number N.
Off-Tuning Parameter A~/
Usually, the TLD is designed to be tuned to the natural frequency of the
structure. However, the off-tuning may occur owing to various reasons: the
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J. Struct. Eng. 1993.119:3482-3502.

 nonlinearity of structure, the change of structural natural frequency due to
the change of live load, the error in identifying the natural frequency of the
structure, and so on. The efficiency of the MTLDs is herein studied when
the off-tuning exists. The condition used in the simulation are shown in
Table 3. The tuning case (fs = fo, A'? = 0) as well as the off-tuning cases
(fs = 0.95 fo, A~/ = - 0 . 0 5 and L = 1.05 fo, A~ = 0.05) are considered.
Fig. 7(a) shows the structural responses with the STLD under the tuning
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and the off-tuning conditions. It can be seen in the case of the STLD that
the maximum structural response was greatly increased due to the off-tuning.
The MTLDs (N = 5) with the frequency band width AR = 0.2 was simulated
and the results are plotted in Fig. 7(b). It is found that the MTLDs is
insensitive to the tuning condition, i.e., the maximum structural response
changes little even when the offset in tuning exists.

Effect o f E x c i t a t i o n A m p l i t u d e Ao
As mentioned before, the natural frequency as well as the damping of
liquid sloshing depends upon the amplitude of base excitation. These non-
linearities of the liquid sloshing may affect the performances of the MTLDs.
The structural responses under various levels of the harmonic excitation
were computed (Table 4) in order to study the effects of the nonlinearities.
The excitation levels in Table 4 are expressed as the amplitude of the
resonant (peak) response Ao of the structure without damper. The results
are presented in Fig. 8.
For the cases (Ao = 0.1 cm and 0.5 cm) where the liquid sloshing is not
in a strongly nonlinear region, the MTLDs significantly reduces the maxi-
mum response of the structure and appears to be superior to the STLD.
For larger excitation, the difference between the MTLDs and the STLD
becomes smaller with respect to the performance as a damper. For the case
Ao = 5.0 cm, the breaking waves occur and hence the damping of liquid
motion is very large (Fujino et al. 1990). Because of this large liquid damp-
ing, the structural response with the MTLDs is almost the same as that with
the STLD.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS

The MTLD were also experimentally investigated. The two types of ex-
periments were conducted: the shaking table experiment and the TLD-
structure interaction experiment. The parameters of the MTLDs used in
the experiments were determined on the basis of the analytical studies.

TABLE 3. Simulation Cases for Effects of Off-Tuning of MTLD

fo L Ao
Case name N ~ (Hz) (Hz) A~ (cm)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
$3.1 0.458 0.458 tuning 0.1
$3.2 0.458 0.435 -5.0% 0.1
$3.3 0.458 0.481 5.0% 0.1
$3.4 0.2 0.458 0.458 tuning 0.1
$3.5 0.2 0.458 0.431 - 5.0% 0.1
$3.6 0.2 0.458 0.481 5.0% 0.1

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 0.04
...............-off-tuning -5.0% , STLD: N=I
........ off-tuning 5.0%~ ,.'.i
tuning - i / i
o.o3 /i /i
~ /! ~ ~
,',
i .
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0.02 - ~ ~ ;
z \ ; 9
/ \ ;' ,

_ /"

0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10

Frequency Ratio f/fs
(a)

0.04
...............o f f - t u n i n g - 5 . 0 % MTLD: N=5, aR=0.2
........ off-tuning 5.0%
A tuning
E 0.03
.~o

t-
O
O.

n- 0.02

2
~ 0.01 ,,.- -~ .

! i !

0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 .10

Frequency Ratio f/fs
(b)
FIG. 7. Effectiveness of TLD under Off-Tuning: (a) STLD; (b) MTLD

Shaking Table Experiment

The shaking table experiments were carried out to investigate the per-
formance of the liquid sloshing in the MTLDs and the total energy loss per
cycle in the MTLDs, by comparing with STLD. The experimental setup is
shown in Fig. 9. The MTLDs tanks were excited by a shaking table. The
wave heights near the end walls of the TLDs were measured by using a
wave gage. A loadcell was mounted below the MTLDs tanks to detect the
total base shear force purely due to the liquid sloshing in the MTLDs. The
displacement of the shaking table was also recorded. From the data of the
base shear force and the base displacement measured from the experiment,
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 TABLE 4, Simulation Cases for Effects of Am )litude of Structure

fo f, Ao
Case name N AR (Hz) (Hz) (cm)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
$4.1 0.458 0.458 0.1
0.1
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$4.2 0.! 0.458 0.458

$4.3 0.458 0.458 0.5
$4.4 0.1 0.458 0.458 0.5
$4.5 0.458 0.458 ].0
$4.6 0.l 0.458 0.458 1.0
$4.7 0.458 0.458 2.0
$4.8 0.1 0.458 0.458 2.0
$4.9 0.458 0.458 5.0
$4.10 0.1 0.458 0.458 5.0

0.5

0.2

0
0.1
Ao=2.0cm
n- 0.05
Ao=1.0cm

0.02 Ao=0.5cm
2
0.01

0.005
Ao=0.1cm
0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10
Frequency Ratio f/fs
FIG. 8. Effects of Excitation Amplitude

Wave Gage
Mo JTLD ~I :~

DispI. Mete, ~;-Loaclcetl~ ' i I~"

i Shaking Talkie

, i

FIG. 9. Setup of Shaking Table Experiment

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 Tank A Tank B
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Hole
5xl0cm=50crn ,_ ., 5xl0crn=50cm ,~

FIG. 10. TLD Tanks

100 I I I I I I ' I
c-.---,3 STLD
"5 o-O = = MTLD
0 80
0..
if/ : O
co ~o
q 60

r /
U.l
40
e-
.o_ 9 i
I11 20
a

0 ~
0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10 1.15 1.20
Frequency Ratio f/fw
FIG. 11. Shaking Table Experimental Results of STLD and MTLD

TABLE 5. Shaking Table Experiment Cases

$o Ao
Case name N AR (Hz) (cm)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
El.1 1 -- 0.770 0.1
El.2 5 0.16 0.770 0.1

the total energy loss per cycle due to the liquid sloshing in the M T L D s was
calculated. The energy loss per cycle is an important index for the M T L D s
as a damper.
The MTLDs tanks used in the experiment are shown in Fig. 10. T a n k A
was used as the MTLDs, which consists of five small tanks with the length
2a = 40 cm and the width b = 10 cm. T a n k B was used as the STLD. It
was designed to have the same size as T a n k A in order to keep the damping
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FIG. 12. Liquid Motion in MTLD During Forced Excitation (N = 15)

Oscillating
Accelerorr ,~ters part Wav~ Gage
............... ~ ~ TLD ~ .............
I Exciter I
" T~lateform

FIG. 13. Setup of TLD-Structure Interaction Experiment

TABLE 6. TLD-Structure Interaction Experiment Cases for Effects of MTLD

fo f~ Ao
Case name N AR (Hz) (Hz) (cm)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
E2.1 0.770 0.770 0.1
E2.2 0.16 0.770 0.770 0.1
E2.3 0.770 0.770 5.0
E2.4 0.16 0.770 0.770 5.0

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 0.040 I" ' ' ' J ' '

L
~'"'~ STLD
: : MTLD

0.030 j
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_ ?o
-~' 0.020

O.OLO ~ " %

0
0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10 1.15 .20
Frequency Ratio f/fs
(a)

2.0 ! i

c------o STLD
-" = MTLD
A
E 1.5
o

t-
O
O.

rr 1.0

0.5

I t I i I I I i I 0 I m
0
0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10 1.15 .20
Frequency Ratio f/fs
(b)
FIG. 14. TLD-Structure Interaction Experimental Results for STLD and MTLD: (a)
Ao = 0.1 cm; (b) Ao = 5.0 cm

of the liquid same for both the MTLDs and the STLD. Each two adjacent
small tanks in the Tank B are connected by a small hole with a diameter
1.0 cm near the bottom, so that the liquid depth in each small tank can be
exactly the same. A harmonic base displacement with a constant amplitude
was imposed on the TLD tanks by the shaking table. The frequency of the
excitation was varied in the range of 0.8 -< f/fTLD <-- 1.2, where fTI,D denotes
the fundamental natural frequency of the STLD or the central frequency
of the MTLDs. The frequency spacing is 13 = 0.04 fo and the frequency
band width is AR = 0.16.
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 0.0601 " ' " ' " ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' "
l" c.....-~ STLD
0 050 I- = -- M T L D

o.o,o il
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o.oo[ Ji
o,o2oI- ~ \
Po

~ . . . . -

0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10 1.15 1.20

Frequency Ratio f/fs
(a)

0.060
' ' ' 9 ' ' ' o-'...~ STLD
:'. = = MTLD
oo5o i;
E o
0.040 i
e-

g~ f
0.030 i

9- i
o.o o I

0.010 o'" g "

= ,: .: O,Q
" - O.Q ,

0
0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10 1.15 1.20
Frequency Ratio f/fs
(b)
FIG. 15. T L D - S t r u c t u r e Interaction E x p e r i m e n t a l Results for S T L D and M T L D : (a)
Off-Tuning - 5 % ; (b) O f f - T u n i n g + 5 %

Fig. 11 shows the frequency responses of the energy loss per cycle for
the STLD and the MTLDs. The experimental conditions for these cases are
shown in Table 5. The response curve of the STLD has a sharp peak near
the frequency ratio of 1.04; this indicates that the STLD has a relatively
low damping. Compared with this, the response curve of the energy loss
per cycle of the MTLDs is rather flat, indicating that the MTLDs has higher
damping if it is equivalently regarded as a linear single-degree-of-freedom
system. This flatness is due to small phase differences among the liquid
motion in each TLD of the MTLDs as shown in Fig. 12. The previous
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J. Struct. Eng. 1993.119:3482-3502.

 TABLE 7. TLD-Structure Interaction Experiment Cases for Effects of MTLD under
Off-Tuning

L L Ao
Case name N AR (Hz) (Hz) A~/ (cm)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
E3.1 1 -- 0,732 0.770 -5.0% 0.1
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E3.2 5 0.16 0.732 0.770 -5.0% 0.1

E3.3 1 -- 0.809 0.770 5.0% 0.1
E3.4 5 0.16 0.809 0.770 5.0% 0.1

studies (Fujino et at. 1990) have showed that the liquid damping in this
STLD is usually much lower than its optimal value. So the T L D efficiency
is expected to be improved by using the multiple TLDs.

TLD-Structure Interaction Experiments

The efficiency of the MTLDs was experimentally investigated (Ito 1992)
by using a TLD-structure interaction model. The experimental model is
shown in Fig. 13. The structure is a single-degree-of-freedom one and the
external force on the structure is given by an exciter. The TLD tanks were
mounted on the structure. The wave heights of the TLDs and the displace-
ment of the structure were measured by wave gages and a position sensor,
respectively. The external force is sinusoidal and constant in amplitude. The
sweep tests were done in the frequency ratio range 0.8 -< f/fTLD ~< 1.2. The
MTLDs or the STLD was installed in the structure with a mass ratio for
both of 1%. The TLD tanks used for this experiment were the same as
those shown in Fig. 10. The experimental conditions are shown in detail in
Table 6.
The experimental results are presented in Fig. 14. Fig. 14(a) compares
the structural responses of the STLD with those of the MTLDs. The resonant
response amplitude of the structure without any damper is very small, i.e.,
Ao = 0.1 cm, so the liquid damping is small and the sloshing under such a
small excitation is regarded to be linear. Similar with the simulation results,
the shape of the response curve changes from a one-peak type to a two-
peaks type when replacing the STLD by the MTLDs. The efficiency of
vibration-suppression is improved by using the MTLDs, even though the
mass ratio and the liquid damping are the same. The supplementary ex-
periments using the MTLDs with smaller tanks and deeper water, for which
the liquid sloshing has lower damping and weaker nonlinearities, were also
carried out. These experiments more clearly demonstrated the efficiency of
the MTLDs (Abe and Fujino 1993a, b). The experiment under the large
excitation force, corresponding to Ao = 5.0 cm, was also made [Fig. 14(b)].
In this case, the breaking waves have been observed during the experiment.
Since the liquid damping increases significantly when the breaking waves
occur, the efficiency is at the more or less same level for both the STLD
and the MTLDs (Sun et al. 1992).
The experimental results shown in Fig. 15 demonstrate the efficiency of
the MTLDs under the off-tuning situations (Table 7). In contrast to the
conditions used for the simulations, the natural frequency of the structure,
fs remained as a constant but the natural frequency of the TLD, fTLD, shifted
to make A,,/ = - 0 . 0 5 [Fig. 15(a)] and A~/ = 0.05 [Fig. 15(b)]. The exper-
imental results show that the MTLDs is insensitive to the tuning condition,
and that the structural responses remain low even though the damper is not
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J. Struct. Eng. 1993.119:3482-3502.

 0.0401 I I 9 I
Simulation
9 Experiment

~ 0.030
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c-
O
" %
n.-
0.020 9 9

0.010 9 ere

0
0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10 1.15 1.20
FrequencyRatiof/fs
(a)

! i 9 !

2~L 9
Simulation
Experiment

E" 1.5

ffl
1.0

-'1

~ 0.5

0 I I I I I I I

0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10 1.15 1.20

Frequency Ratio f/fs
(b)
FIG. 16. Comparison between Simulation and Experiment: (a) Ao = 0.1 cm; (b)
,'to = 5.0 cm

tuned to the structure. Compared with this, the peak response of the struc-
ture with the STLD is increased to about the twice of that with the MTLDs.
The simulations corresponding to the experimental cases shown in Fig.
14 were carried out. The results are plotted together with the experimental
ones in Fig. 16. The close agreement between the simulation and the ex-
periment are obtained for the cases involving large excitation amplitude
[Fig. 14(b)]. The response of the structure with the small excitation am-
plitude can be predicted qualitatively by the simulation. However, one can
see there are some discrepancies. This may be partially due to some ex-
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J. Struct. Eng. 1993.119:3482-3502.

 E
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I
Y/////.f.ff-f/h 200 cm

(a) (b)
FIG. 17. Example Office Building and MTLD Tank: (a) Building; (b) MTLD Tank

TABLE 8. Parameters of Building for Application Example

Structural property X-direction Y-direction
(1) (2) (3)
First mode mass (ton) 8,400 7,500
Structural damping ratio (%) 1.0 0.9
First natural frequency (Hz) 0.35 0.29

perimental error on the excitation force, since the exciter-generated force

was rather small so that it was difficult to control the input at the prescribed
level. Besides this, the liquid damping may be underestimated in the the-
oretical model. The TLD tanks are very narrow and the side walls increase
the damping. This effect is not fully taken into account in the model.

APPLICATION EXAMPLE

Consider an existing high-rise office building [Fig. 17(a)]. Suppose that

we install MTLDs to reduce the wind-induced response that affects the
comfort of occupants. The parameters of the building is given in Table 8.
The damping ratios and the natural frequencies are measured ones. The
modal mass is computed by making the top-floor displacement in the modes
unity.
The size of the TLD tank is preferred to be large so that the total number
of the tanks (relating to the cost) becomes small (low cost) to attain the
required mass ratio. On the other hand, the depth of water should be
shallow, say e ~ 0.10-0.20 to avoid the dead-mass effect in liquid motion.
Considering these, the TLD tanks are chosen to be 200 cm x 240 cm [Fig.
17(b)]. When the water depth is 20.0 cm, the fundamental natural sloshing
frequencies in x- and y-directions are equal to the first natural frequencies
of the building, respectively. The value of the depth ratio, e, is 0.20 and
0.17 in x- and y-directions, respectively.
The number of the TLD tanks is set to be 77 to have 1.0% mass ratio
since the mass of each TLD is approximately 1 kg/cm 3 • 200 c m x 140 cm
x 20 cm = 960 kg and the first mode mass of the structure in Y-direction
is 7,500 tons.
N is selected to be 11; this means that every seven TLDs have the same
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J. Struct. Eng. 1993.119:3482-3502.

 2.0
~""~ STLD
: = MTLD
A
E 1.5
s,
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O9 O
t-
O

~ 1.0
,q
o "~ "b
20 ,; i ." D
N 0.5 k

0.C
| |
0,90 0.~95 1,00 1.05 1.10
Frequency Ratio f/fs
(a)

2.0
o--...-o STLD
= = MTLD
9,
E 1.5
o.9.

t-
O
6
rrm 1,0

-1

'\ -"
~176 ~176
ilo ' C ' Cr
Cr Ct
Ct JOt2 s / . - 'O'O-O

0.0 , , , , , ,

0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10

Frequency Ratio f/fs

(b)
FIG. 18. Response of Example Building under 13 m/s Wind: (a) Tuning; (b) Off-
Tuning

water depth. The critical frequency band width ARc to have the multiple
TLD effect is given as X/Ix (0.57 + log N) (IX: mass ratio) (Abe and Fujino
1993a, b); in this case ARc = 0.122 (IX = 0.01, N = 11). Consider the
structure may have off-tuning in frequency, the frequency band width AR
is set to be 0.2; i.e., the frequency range of the M T L D s is from 0.900 f~ (h
= 16.2 cm) to 1.100 f~ (h = 24.7 cm) with the interval [3 = 0.02fs.
The suppression of the building vibration in Y-direction is considered in
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J. Struct. Eng. 1993.119:3482-3502.

 4.0
~ " " ~ STLD
: : MTLD

E 3.0
0)
u)
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c-
O

rr
r
2.0
.9
-]
O 1

j ~
10

"0

0.01 . , . ,o . = .
0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 .10
Frequency Ratio flfs
(a)

4.0
~ " " ~ STLD
: : MTLD

E
o
3.0

e-
o
o.

~ 2.0
"-i
g
N 1.0 I~d'
\
I "
e
0

6o.o~o
''b
o d, , . ,
"'b
'o~0
aa~J~" ' ~ a a ~ ~ o "
O,Oi , i , i , I ,

0.90 0.95 1.00 1.05 1.10

Frequency Ratio f/fs

(b)
FIG. 19. R e s p o n s e of E x a m p l e Building u n d e r 20 m/s Wind: (a) Tuning; ( b ) Off-
Tuning

this example. Without the MTLDs, the measurement indicated that the
response of the building, Ao, under the average wind speeds 13 m/s and 20
m/s are about 2.0 cm (6.6 gal) and 4.0 cm (13.3 gal), respectively. According
to the Architectural Institute of Japan recommendation (Guidelines 1991),
when fs is about 0.29 Hz, the occupants feel uncomfortable if its acceleration
level exceeds 6.0 gal, and comfortable if it is less than 2.4 gal; acceptable
when the acceleration level is in between. The frequency responses under
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J. Struct. Eng. 1993.119:3482-3502.

 TABLE 9. Results of Application Example
WITH DAMPER
Wind Speed Tuning Off-Tuning
Without
Speed Activity damper STLD MTLD STLD MTLD
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
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13 m/s max. amp. 2.0 (cm) 1.4 (crn) 1.1 (cm) 1.6 (cm) 1.0 (cm)
13 m/s max. acc. 6.6 (gal) 4.5 (gal) 3.4 (gal) 5.5 (gal) 3.1 (gal)
20 m/s max. amp. 4.0 (cm) 2.2 (cm) 1.6 (cm) 1.5 (cm) 1.3 (cm)
20 m/s max. acc. 13.3 (gal) 6.4 (gal) 5.3 (gal) 4.8 (gal) 4.4 (gal)

the two excitation levels (the wind speed: 13 m/s and 20 m/s) were simulated
and the results are presented in Figs. 18 and 19.
By installing the MTLDs, the building vibration is noticeably suppressed
significantly (Table 9). The maximum acceleration of the building is reduced
from 6.6 gal to less than 3.4 gal under the wind speed of 13 m/s and from
13.3 gal to less than 5.3 gal under the wind of 20 m/s; both are in the
acceptable range. It is noteworthy that they are efficient even there is the
offset in the tuning of the frequency, compared to the STLD, which are
also plotted in Figs. 18 and 19.

CONCLUSIONS
Within a small amplitude range, the efficiency of a TLD can be improved
by making the TLD multiple, i.e. an MTLDs, provided that a proper fre-
quency-band width is used and that the structural amplitude is rather small.
An MTLDs with a proper frequency-band width does not lose its efficiency
even for off-tuning in frequency.
Mainly due to the amplitude-dependent damping in liquid motion, an
MTLDs is not significantly more effective than a STLD when the liquid
sloshing in the TLD is large; an MTLDs has almost the same effectiveness
as a STLD when breaking waves occur.
The damping of water sloshing is small and less than the optimal level of
a STLD unless the water depth is very shallow. For high efficiency, relatively
low damping is required for an MTLDs. In practice, a TLD consists of a
number of tanks of the same size filled with the same depth of water. It is
easy to make a TLD multiple by employing the slightly different depths of
liquid and no additional effort to increase the damping of water sloshing to
the optimal value is required. Hence the application of an MTLDs is very
attractive. Finally, an application example of an MTLDs is presented to
demonstrate its efficiency.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The writers would like to thank T. Igusa of Northwestern University,
P. Warnitchai, and H. Yamaguchi of AIT for their useful comments at the
initial stage of the study. The experiment using the shaking table was con-
ducted at Res. Inst. Shimizu Corporation. The writers express appreciation
to T. Wakahara, Research Institute of Shimizu Corporation, for his advice
and T. Ito, former student of the University of Tokyo, for his assistance
during the experiment. The financial support from the Japan Ministry of
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J. Struct. Eng. 1993.119:3482-3502.

 Education, Science, and Culture, and the Joint Research Program with
Shimizu Corp. are also acknowledged.

APPENDIX. REFERENCES
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dampers (MTMD) and its frequency band width." JSCE J. Struct. Engrg./Earth-
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by New York University on 05/16/15. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

quake Engrg., 465, 87-96 (in Japanese).

Abe, M., and Fujino, Y. (1993b). "Efficiency and design formulas of multiple tuned
mass dampers (MTMD)." JSCE J. Struct. Engrg./Earthquake Engrg., 465, 97-
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Guidelines for the evaluation of habitability to building vibration. Arch. Inst. of
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Chaiseri, P., Fujino, Y., Pacheco, B. M., and Sun, L. M. (1989). "'Interaction of
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Fujii, K., Tamura, Y., Sato, T., and Wakahara, T. (1988). "Wind-induced vibration
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Fujino, Y., Pacheco, B. M., Chaiseri, P., and Sun, L. M. (1988). "Parametric studies
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Fujino, Y., Pacheco, B. M., Chaiseri, P., Sun, L. M., and Koga, K. (1990). "Under-
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Wakahara, T., Ohyama, T., and Fuji, K. (1991). "Suppression of wind-induced
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 Xu, K., and Igusa, T. (1992). "Dynamic characteristics of multiple substructures
with closely spaced frequencies." Earthq. Eng, and Str. Dyn., 21, 1059-1070.
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Yoneda, M., Fujino, Y., Kande, H., Yamamoto, A., Miyamoto, Y., Ando, O.,
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with application to the Sakitama Bridge." J. Wind Engrg., 41,105-106 (in Jap-
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