The Influence of Viscous Dampers on the Better Performance of Water Pipelines Subjected to Near-Fault Earthquakes

Experiences of the previous earthquakes such as Bam, Northridge etc demonstrate that lifelines have no proper performance due to Near-Fault (NF) earthquakes. Hence, this research evaluates the influence of viscous dampers on the better performance of the water pipelines subjected to NF earthquakes. For this purpose, the water pipelines network of a zone in Tehran city was selected as a case study. The pipeline network was modeled using Finite Element Analysis (FEA), and nonlinear time-history analysis was undertaken via seismic scaled records of NF earthquakes. The obtained results indicated the critical points of network which were failed due to seismic waves. As a solution, viscous dampers were employed for improving the behavior of the mentioned points. The obtained results demonstrate that the failure points were retrofitted efficiently by viscous dampers.