Experimental validation of a direct pre-design formula for TLCD

•A simplified pre-design formulation for TLCD passive control systems subjected to random loads is introduced.•Numerical results obtained with the proposed formulation are validated through an experimental campaign.•Experimental tests have been carried out on three different configurations of TLCD device.•Experimental results are very close to both classical nonlinear formulation and proposed simplified formulation one.•Proposed approach reliability has been proved in time and frequency domain, as well as in terms of response statistics.

The passive control of vibrations has received in recent years a great deal of attention from researchers. Several types of devices have been proposed in order to reduce the dynamic responses of different kinds of structural systems. Among them, the Tuned Liquid Column Damper (TLCD) has proved to be very effective in reducing vibration of structures. However, since the equations governing the TLCD controlled systems response is nonlinear, the calibration of TLCD parameters is time consuming and not convenient to perform in a pre-design phase. In this context, it has recently been introduced by the authors a formula that allows to choose the optimal parameters of TLCD in a direct and fast way. This ready-to-use and straightforward proposed formulation has been verified by comparison with the numerical Monte Carlo simulation based on the nonlinear complete system. In this paper numerical results obtained with the proposed formulation are validated through an experimental campaign on a small scale SDOF shear-type model, built in the Experimental Dynamic Laboratory of University of Palermo, and equipped with a TLCD excited at the base with random noises through a shaking table.