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 considerableadditional damping to reduce the dynamic response of structures. However, the VE material appears to besensitive to the variations in ambient temperature and vibration frequency. To minimize these effects, anew VE material has been developed. This new material shows less sensitivity to variations in vibrationfrequency and temperature. However, it is highly dependent on the shear strain. Experimental studies onthe seismic behavior of a 2/5 scale five-story steel frame with these new VE dampers have been carriedout. Test results show that the structural response can be effectively reduced due to the added stiffnessand damping provided by the new type of VE dampers under both mild and strong earthquake groundmotions. In addition, analytical studies have been carried out to describe the strain-dependent behavior ofthe VE damper. The dynamic properties and hysteresis behavior of the dampers can be simulated by asimple bilinear model based on the equivalent dissipated energy principle proposed in this study.