Assessment of the Effect of Design Parameters of Pressurized Sand Dampers from Component Testing
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 149, Issue 10
Abstract
This study presents results from cyclic testing on various configurations of a recently developed pressurized sand damper in which a steel sphere is moving within a cylindrical tube filled with sand that is under pressure. The experimental campaign investigated the effects of the key design parameters of the damper, namely, the effect of the clearance between the moving sphere and the cylindrical tube and the effect of the overall length of the damper to its force output. The recorded force–displacement loops when normalized to the strength of the pressurized sand damper reveal remarkable order with stable behavior and confirm that the force output is nearly rate-independent. The paper also presents recorded force–displacement loops where the sphere mounted on the piston rod is replaced with a bolt where only the bolt head and nut are protruding from the moving piston rod. With this configuration, the pinching behavior of the pressurized sand damper at longer strokes is suppressed without generating large forces at longer strokes.
Practical Applications
The increasing need for structures to meet acceptable performance levels during earthquake and wind excitation has led to the development of various high-performance design and retrofit strategies. Supplemental damping is a widely accepted response-modification strategy for structures where energy is dissipated in dedicated, specially designed energy dissipation devices. Motivated by the recent failures and displacement limitations of existing energy dissipation devices, this paper examines the behavior of an innovative, reliable, long-stroke, low-cost energy dissipation device in which a steel sphere is moving within a cylindrical tube filled with sand that is under pressure. One of the novel aspects of the proposed pressurized sand damper is that it dissipates energy through the hysteretic behavior of sand that can be enhanced by controlling the externally exerted pressure on the sand. The experimental campaign investigates the effects of the key design parameters of the damper, namely, the effect of the clearance between the moving sphere and the cylindrical tube in association with the effect of the overall length of the damper to its force output.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the National Science Foundation with Grant No CMMI-2036131; the testing at the University of Patras pressurized sand damper was funded by the General Secretariat of Research and Technology of Greece within the funded framework Thales under the project Complex Viscoelastic and Viscoplastic Materials (COVISCO). The manufacturing and testing of the double-ended pressurized sand damper shown in Fig. 28 was funded by the Hart Institute for Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship of Southern Methodist University with Grant No. 20-43-1300. All the configurations of the SMU pressurized sand damper together with its attachments were manufactured at the SMU Lyle School of Engineering machine shop by Mr. Kenneth Sangston. We gratefully acknowledge Mr. Sangston’s dedication and attention to this project. The authors gratefully acknowledge the interest of Professor James M. Ricles from Lehigh University to the pressurized sand damper that was developed at SMU and for supporting the SMU–Lehigh collaboration.
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Published In
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 149 • Issue 10 • October 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 13, 2022
Accepted: May 22, 2023
Published online: Jul 25, 2023
Published in print: Oct 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Dec 25, 2023
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- Usama El Shamy, Ehab Sabi, Nicos Makris, Characterization of Energy Dissipation during Cyclic Loading of a Sand Damper, Geo-Congress 2024, 10.1061/9780784485316.025, (232-239), (2024).