Dynamic Characteristics of a Hydraulic Damper

The response of a structure to earthquake or any other dynamic excitation can be brought down by using a suitable damper such as a hydraulic damper. An analytical model has been developed for hydraulic damper, which consists of a cylinder and piston arrangement with a bypass pipeline. The stiffness of the system is primarily due to the compressibility of the fluid and the damping is largely due to the pressure drop in the bypass line. The dynamic response of the hydraulic damper has been evaluated for an assumed sinusoidal motion of the piston. The paper presents detailed results of the study of the dynamic response of the damper to variations in input and system parameters. The characteristics of the damper, thus obtained, will be useful in determining the dynamic response of the whole system to which this damper will be attached.