a.m horr - Ph.D. Studeni, Dept. of Civil & Mining Engrs., University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW ۲۵۲۲, Australia

A methodology is proposed for the dynamic analysis of earthquake-resistant structures with added viscoelastic (VE) dampers. These dampers reduce amplitude and acceleration by converting part of the vibratory energy of wind and earthquake ground motion to heat. The mechanical properties of VE materials are relatively complicated and may vary with environment temperature and excitátion frequency (frequency-dependent behaviour). One of the challenging aspects in research and implementation of Ve dampers is lo evaluate the damping characteristic and the effect of the dampers on structures. The purpose of this paper is to present a fractional-spectral finite element (FE) method for viscoelastically-damped structures. Using the fractional derivative model, the nonlinear damping characteristics of a VE dampers have been modelled. The proposed formulation is then been extended to derive the dynamic response of a viscoelastically damped tall structure under an earthquake excitation using a computer program.