Experimental Validation of Viscoelastic Coupling Dampers for Enhanced Dynamic Performance of High-Rise Buildings
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 5
Abstract
A new damping system, the viscoelastic coupling damper (VCD), has been developed to enhance the wind and seismic performance of coupled shear wall high-rise buildings by adding high damping elements in place of reinforced concrete coupling beams. VCDs replace structural members, such as outriggers or coupling beams, and therefore do not occupy any usable architectural space. When they are properly configured in high-rise buildings, they provide supplemental viscous damping to all lateral modes of vibration, which mitigates building tenant vibration perception problems and reduces both the wind and earthquake response. Experimental results from tests on five small-scale viscoelastic (VE) damper specimens of 5- and 10-mm thicknesses are first presented, followed by the results from six full-scale VCDs representing two alternative configurations. The first was designed for areas where moderate seismic ductility is required, and the second was designed with built-in ductile structural fuses for areas where high seismic ductility is required. The VE material tests exhibited stable hysteretic behavior under the loading conditions that are expected in high-rise buildings under wind and earthquake loading. The full-scale tests validated the overall system performance within a realistic coupled wall configuration, and confirmed the performance of the wall anchorages and all connecting elements as well as the VE material behavior. The full-scale test results also demonstrated the targeted viscoelastic response during wind and low level earthquake loading and the targeted viscoelastic-plastic response for extreme earthquakes, where the response is a combination of the VE response and the nonlinear behavior of the structural fuses.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank University of Toronto Professors Michael Collins and Evan Bentz for their technical review of the full-scale test setup as well as contributions to the damper design, Dr. Ian Aiken for his review of the VCD development throughout the project, Dr. Tibor Kokai who’s expertise and review of the test setup and VCD-A was extremely valuable, as well as practicing engineers Agha Hasan and Sean Smith. Nippon Steel and Sumikin Engineering Co. is gratefully acknowledged for the in-kind manufacturing for all of the VE damper and VCD specimens. The authors would like to thank Halcrow Yolles for providing information on the building projects on which the damper designs were based. The authors are grateful to Brunet Group and Canam Group for the construction of portions of the full-scale test setup and ERICO for providing Lenton couplers in-kind. The financial support for the tests was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Finally, the authors wish to acknowledge the staff at the Structural Testing Laboratories Facilities at the University of Toronto and the Structures Laboratory at École Polytechnique in Montreal.
References
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Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 5 • May 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 25, 2013
Accepted: Dec 16, 2013
Published online: Jul 22, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 22, 2014
Published in print: May 1, 2015
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