This report presents the work done within the framework of my master thesis in the program Infrastructure Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. This project has been proposed and sponsored by the French company Setec TPI, part of the Setec group, located in Paris. The overall goal of this study is to investigate fluid-structure interaction and particularly sloshing in liquid-containing structures subjected to seismic or other dynamic action. After a brief introduction, the report is composed of three main chapters. The first one presents and explains fluid-structure interaction equations. Fluid-structure interaction problems obey a general flow equation and several boundary conditions, given some basic assumptions. The purpose of the two following chapters is to solve the corresponding system of equations. The first approach proposes an analytical solution: the problem is solved for 2D rectangular tanks. Different models are considered and compared in order to analyze and describe sloshing phenomenon. Liquid can be decomposed in two parts: the lower part that moves in unison with the structure is modeled as an impulsive added mass; the upper part that sloshes is modeled as a convective added mass. Each of these two added mass creates hydrodynamic pressures and simple formulas are given in order to compute them. The second approach proposes a numerical solution: the goal is to be able to solve the problem for any kind of geometry. The differential problem is resolved using a singularity method and Gauss functions. It is stated as a boundary integral equation and solved by means of the Boundary Element Method. The linear system obtained is then implemented on Matlab. Scripts and results are presented. Matlab programs are run to solve fluid-structure interaction problems in the case of rectangular tanks: the results concur with the analytical solution which justifies the numerical solution. This report gives a good introduction to sloshing phenomenon and gathers several analytical solutions found in the literature. Besides, it provides a Matlab program able to model effects of sloshing in any liquid-containing structures.

[pt] A redução de deslocamentos e acelerações em edifícios é um aspecto de vital importância no projeto de estruturas sob a ação de sismos. Assim, o controle de vibrações de estruturas em regiões sujeitas a eventos sísmicos tem se tornado um importante tema de pesquisa em engenharia. Dentre os mecanismos propostos para a redução de vibrações em estruturas, encontram-se os amortecedores magnetoreológicos (MR). Amortecedores magnetoreológicos são dispositivos passivos ou semiativos que controlam as vibrações com um consumo mínimo de energia. Estes mecanismos são caracterizados por um comportamento histerético não linear que leva em geral a uma grande dissipação de energia. Neste trabalho estuda-se o efeito de um amortecedor MR e de seus parâmetros característicos na redução das vibrações de edifícios e torres esbeltas. Para isto, utiliza-se o modelo de Bouc-Wen. O edifício é descrito como um sistema discreto massa-mola-amortecedor do tipo shear-building e a torre como um pêndulo múltiplo, onde se leva em conta a possibilidade de grandes rotações e deslocamentos. Considera-se o amortecedor localizado na estrutura (primeiro andar) e como um sistema de isolamento de base, com o propósito de verificar a influência da localização do amortecedor na redução das respostas dinâmicas. Quando o dispositivo é usado como isolamento de base, ambos os modelos mostraram uma grande diminuição da resposta dinâmica, em comparação aos resultados com o dispositivo no primeiro andar. Estuda-se também a influência da relação entre as frequências da estrutura e o conteúdo de frequências da excitação na eficiência do amortecedor MR. Os resultados mostram que esta relação tem uma grande influência no grau de redução das vibrações da estrutura controlada. Em todos os casos analisados, observa-se que o amortecedor MR leva a uma redução das vibrações, em particular dos deslocamentos da estrutura. / [en] The reduction of displacements and accelerations in buildings is a vital aspect in the design of structures under an earthquake excitation. Thus, the vibration control of structures in areas subject to seismic events has become an important research topic in engineering. Among the proposed mechanisms to reduce vibrations in structures, are the magneto rheological dampers (MR). Magneto rheological dampers are passive or semi-active devices for vibration control characterized by small energy consumption. These mechanisms are characterized by a nonlinear hysteretic behavior that usually leads to large energy dissipation. In this paper the effect of an MR damper and its characteristic parameters in reducing the vibrations of buildings and slender towers is studied. For this, the Bouc-Wen model is adopted. The building is described as a discrete mass-spring-damper-type shear-building and the tower as a multiple pendulum, which takes into account large displacements and rotations. It is considered that the damper is located in the structure (first floor) or as a base isolation system, in order to verify the influence of the location of the damper in the reduction of dynamic responses. When the device is used as a base isolation, both models show a large decrease of the dynamic response as compared to the results with the device on the first floor. The influence of the relationship between the frequencies of the structure and frequency content of the excitation on the efficiency of MR damper is also investigated. The results show that this relation has a great influence on the degree of reduction of vibrations of the controlled structure. In all cases here analyzed, it is observed that the MR damper leads to a reduction of the vibration response, in particular the displacement of the structure.