Numerical Modeling of Dynamic Behavior of Annular Tuned Liquid Dampers for Applications in Wind Towers

Abstract

In this study, the performance of annular liquid tanks as a tuned liquid damper (TLD) in mitigating the vibration of wind turbines was investigated using a numerical model. A proposed hybrid wind tower model composed of a concrete shaft and a steel mast with a height of 150 m was simulated using a single‐degree‐of‐freedom system. The structural domain including the tank wall and a rigid mass was modeled using finite element method, while the fluid domain was simulated by finite volume method using CFX software. A parametric study was carried out to investigate the behavior of annular TLD under harmonic loads for different mass and frequency ratios as well as displacement amplitudes. The damping characteristics of the annular TLD model were derived by comparing the numerical results with an equivalent linear model. In addition, the effectiveness of annular TLD was estimated by comparing the numerically calculated damping ratios with those corresponding to the optimum damping ratio values derived for a particular mass ratio based on the concept of tuned mass damper. It was found that that the annular TLD is effective when the amplitude of excitation is small. Moreover, the response of TLD in terms of nonlinear free surface sloshing and the energy dissipated by the system was discussed. Finally, the effectiveness of annular TLD in reducing the structural response of wind turbine towers under random vibrations was evaluated and discussed.

Shaking table test on vibration control effects of a monopile offshore wind turbine with a tuned mass damper

“…To effectively attenuate the adverse vibration of wind turbines, plenty of scenarios were put forward and studied, including passive control, semi‐active control, and active control . It is worth mentioning that wind turbines equipped with the tuned‐type dampers, whose frequencies are tuned to the basic frequency of wind turbines, are extensively studied and adopted, such as tuned liquid damper, tuned liquid column damper, tuned mass damper (TMD), tuned liquid particle damper, tuned rolling ball damper, spherical tuned liquid damper, and ball vibration absorber . The TMD can exert significant vibration control effect with relatively small auxiliary mass added, especially for the structures with low damping ratios, such as wind turbine tower .…”

Sustainable Building Design

“…(Kim, Adeli 2005a, b) in the U.S. to reduce the lateral vibrations. The TLCD not only reduces the deflections and accelerations at the top floors and provides better structural stability but the water in the tanks of the TLCD can also be used in fire fighting and as chilled water storage (Ghaemmaghami et al 2013). The TLCD system uses water in place of additional concrete or steel used in traditional tuned mass damper (TMD) systems (Cho et al 2012;Amini et al 2013).…”

Performance enhancement of wind turbine systems with vibration control: A review

“…The effectiveness of TLD in reducing the structural response of wind turbines under harmonic and random excitations was investigated in [88]. Annular TLD was proposed in this study and simulation was done based on single-degree of freedom hybrid wind turbine model.…”