EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON USING UNIFORM TUNED LIQUID COLUMN DAMPER FOR STRUCTURAL CONTROL OF BUILDINGS RESTING ON LOOSE SOIL

In this study, through series of shaking table tests and statistical analysis, the efficiency of Uniform Tuned Liquid Column Damper (UTLCD) in structures resting on loose soils, considering soil-structure interaction was investigated. The soil beneath the structure is loose sandy soil. The Laminar Shear Box (LSB) as a soil container was adopted and the scaled form of the prototype structure namely model structure using scaling laws was built. Applying selected earthquake record the top story displacement of the soil-structure model was obtained. In the rest of the tests, the soil-structure model was equipped with UTLCD and tested. 3 different in sizes of UTLCDs, each with different blocking ratio and frequencies was used. To implement tests, completely randomized factorial design, with factors of Blocking ratio, Frequency and Type of the UTLCD was adopted. Through statistical analysis of the experimental tests was demonstrated that the mentioned factors are effective in response of the structure. Using Response Surface Methodology (RSM), the optimum values of the factors to minimize the top story displacement has been found. In this study it was demonstrated that, due to low reduction in structural responses (in average 12 percent), the optimum UTLCD is not efficient enough in controlling structures resting on loose soils.