Abstract
This paper presents an investigation of a tuned liquid damper (TLD), for which heavy mud is used instead of water as the liquid. The viscosity of heavy mud is higher than that of water and can be adjusted within a certain range to meet the optimal design value of liquid sloshing of TLD. In addition, the heavy mud has a higher density than water, hence more effective mass is available.
The experimental results showed that the heavy mud TLD is more effective than a conventional TLD using plain water. The simulations, using a modified theoretical model with equivalent damping of heavy mud, showed good agreement between the measurement and the prediction. The heavy mud TLD was applied to a high RC bridge pier under constmction for reducing wind-induced vibration. It was found that the damping ratio of the pier was increased from about 1% to 3%.
