Shaking table study of a 2/5 scale steel frame with new viscoelastic dampers

Viscoelastic (VE) dampers have shown to be capable of providing structures with considerable<br />additional damping to reduce the dynamic response of structures. However, the VE material appears to be<br />sensitive to the variations in ambient temperature and vibration frequency. To minimize these effects, a<br />new VE material has been developed. This new material shows less sensitivity to variations in vibration<br />frequency and temperature. However, it is highly dependent on the shear strain. Experimental studies on<br />the seismic behavior of a 2/5 scale five-story steel frame with these new VE dampers have been carried<br />out. Test results show that the structural response can be effectively reduced due to the added stiffness<br />and damping provided by the new type of VE dampers under both mild and strong earthquake ground<br />motions. In addition, analytical studies have been carried out to describe the strain-dependent behavior of<br />the VE damper. The dynamic properties and hysteresis behavior of the dampers can be simulated by a<br />simple bilinear model based on the equivalent dissipated energy principle proposed in this study.