Seismic Analysis and Design of RC Frame With New Metallic Dampers Available to Purchase

Earthquake can make structures damaged and crumble. The traditional approach to seismic design has been based upon providing a combination of strength and ductility to resist the imposed loads. Thus, the level of the structure security cannot be achieved, because the disadvantage of the designing method is lack of adjusting capability subjected to an uncertain earthquake. The presence of some damping (energy dissipation) in buildings has been recognized and studied by professional researchers. Passive energy-dissipated system, as a category of vibration control methods, lead the inputting energy from earthquake to special element, thereby reducing energy-dissipating demand on primary structural members and minimizing possible structural damage. In this paper, a new idea of designing metallic damper is presented and realized through the improved dampers that are of a certain bearing forces in plane of plate and suitable energy-dissipating capability by making metallic dampers in different shapes. New types of metallic dampers are called as “dual functions” metallic damper (DFMD), because it not only provides certain stiffness in normal use for a building, but also are of good ability of the seismic energy-dissipation. The structural configuration and mechanical characteristics of the models and prototypes of the DFMDs are analyzed and experimented so as to verify the seismic performance of the dampers. Finally, the DFMDs applied to a new building in China are introduced and numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the DFMD.