Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Frame Buildings Equipped with Friction Dampers

Friction dampers dissipate energy through the friction that develops between two solid bodies sliding relative to one another. When a major earthquake occurs, the friction dampers slip at a predetermined load before yielding occurs in the members of a frame, which dissipate a major part of the energy. It saves the initial cost of new construction or retrofitting of existing buildings, with a very high energy dissipation. In this paper, the seismic performance of a 14 story moderately ductile concrete frame, designed based on the current edition of the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC) has been studied with and without friction dampers. The building is assumed to be located in Victoria, BC, in the western part of Canada. Nonlinear dynamic time history using a set of ground motion records has been performed to determine their effects. The costs of the building frame with and without friction dampers have been evaluated for comparison. The seismic performance of the building in both cases have been evaluated using nonlinear dynamic analysis and the building with dampers has been found to achieve the desired level of performance without any significant damage in the frame.