TLD Design and Development for Vibration Mitigation in Structures

Steel structures are widely used all over the world. Steel interprets the most current synthesis between engineering and architecture, creating constructions that translate into investments that are advantageous over time. Thanks to the strength of its expressiveness and its known characteristics of elasticity and malleability, the architectural work and the structural one become the interpreter of the other, enhancing the project and its peculiarities. The variability of constructive solutions is significantly increased by the ease with which steel is combined with other materials. Steel is able to intelligently exploit the performance of other construction materials such as glass, where natural lighting allows fascinating transparencies. The design of steel structures, however, involves considerable skills in the field of structure dynamics and vibration mitigation. For this reason, it was decided to develop an experimental apparatus for vibration tests for structures in order to analyse the dynamic behaviour for several factors, including symmetrical and asymmetrical configurations. The experimental apparatus is also designed to test active and passive control systems for vibration control and mitigation. To demonstrate the flexibility of the implemented apparatus, this article reports the study and design of a TLD, Tuned Liquid Damper, for passive vibration mitigation for a two-dimensional structure.