Analytical & Experimental Studies to Present a Self-Centered Viscoelastic Damper for Seismic Functional Recovery Design

Functional recovery design has gained considerable attention during the past decade in earthquake and structural engineering. Self-centering dampers can reduce damage to the structure and therefore are suitable devices for functional recovery philosophy. In this study, a self-centering viscoelastic damper is introduced, consisting of two separate parts, each of which can be independently replaced or repaired. The introduced damper is constructed using viscoelastic materials and disc springs. First, the behavior of the damper is investigated theoretically, then experimental investigations have been carried out on each of the two components. Viscoelastic dampers are made from elastomer-based materials, and their mechanical behavior is highly dependent on the compositions used in construction. To obtain the mechanical properties of the viscoelastic damper, a cylindrical damper has been constructed. With the mechanical properties of each part determined through experimental tests, the introduced system was modeled and analyzed in ABAQUS software. The obtained hysteresis diagram for the system has a flag-shaped form. Results indicate that as the amplitude of loading and pre-compression increase, the damping and load-bearing capacity of the system also increases. The damping capacity depends on the composition of the viscoelastic materials, while load-bearing capacity and self-centering behavior are determined by disc springs.

کلیدواژه ها:

Viscoelastic damper ، Self-centering system ، Disc springs ، Functional recovery seismic design