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M. Reiterer, M.J. Hochrainer:
"PARAMETRIC RESONANCE IN TUNED LIQUID COLUMN DAMPERS: AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION";
accepted for publication in ÖIAZ - Österreichische Ingenieur- und Architektenzeitschrift (2004).

Tuned Liquid Column Dampers (TLCDs) are passive energy absorbing devices used to control vibrations of light and slender civil engineering structures in the low frequency range. Most research work concentrates on the suppression of horizontal structural vibrations and neglects any vertical excitations and their possible influence on the damping characteristics of an attached TLCD. Hence, a small-scale testing facility has been constructed at the TU-Institute. The experimental model setup allows for combined horizontal and vertical excitations of a main structure with an attached TLCD. The experimental results indicate that the vertical excitation might cause parametric resonance of the lightly damped TLCD, and consequently, the vibration reducing capability of the TLCD is decreased substantially. Such a phenomenon is also known for pendulum type Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs). Furthermore, numerical simulations are performed which turn out to be in good agreement with the experimentally obtained results.