Development of Fragility Curves for Tall Buildings with Tuned Liquid Dampers for Vibration Control Under Wind Loading

In this study, fragility curves of a tall building subjected to along-wind loads are developed to evaluate the enhancement in reliability when a Tuned Liquid Damper (TLD) system is employed. For the analysis, a mathematical model of a tall building is designed and subjected to along-wind loads simulated with an autoregressive and moving-average (ARMA) model that includes spatial and temporal variations in the turbulent wind component. For comparison purposes, fragility curves of the tall buildings fitted with a Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) system are also developed. To develop the fragility curves, predefined wind-induced acceleration thresholds are employed as damage states. The numerical results indicate that the use of optimal TLD or TMD systems is effective at reducing the wind-induced acceleration for different mean wind speeds. In addition, the auxiliary damping systems are more effective at reducing the probability of exceedance as the percentage of individuals who perceive acceleration increases from 10 to 50%. Finally, the highest reliability enhancement with the use of both damping systems is achieved for mean wind speed values ranging from 41 to 62 m/s for the damage states considered.