A comparison of semi-active damping control strategies for tuned liquid column damper

Active tuned liquid column damper (ATLCD) is less commonly used than passive systems due to their associated cost and power requirements in civil structures. In principle, semi-active TLCD can deliver the versatility, adaptability, and higher performance of fully active systems for a fraction of the power consumption. Various semi-active control algorithms have been suggested, many of which are of the “on-off” variety. This paper studies the TLCD characteristics of four established semi-active damping control strategies, are based on groundhook, skyhook, bang-bang, and linear clipping controller. A semi-active damper is incorporated into the five degrees of freedom (۵DOF) subject to the horizontal north-south El Centro ground motion record. Its performance is evaluated in terms of the peak and root mean square (RMS) displacement and acceleration transmissibility, and it is compared with those of a passive damper and an ideal controlled damper. The results show that the semi-active system always provides better than a conventional passively damped system, but the damper with linear clipping controller system provides the best performance.