Damping of Frames with Viscoelastic Infill Panels

The effectiveness of energy absorbing infill panels as a passive means for increasing damping and minimizing vibration is examined. Methods for designing such infills, simplified models for dynamic analysis and analyses for predicting effective damping are considered. Viscoelastic constitutive equations are used to model the linear damping capacity of steel and the highly damped material. The effective damping of infilled frames is determined by computing steady state responses to harmonic lateral excitation. A particular infill panel configuration is suggested, and a simplified dynamic model, consisting of an equivalent plain stress rectangle, is verified and used for the dynamic analyses. Steady state responses are computed for a sixteen story, steel rigid frame with and without infill panels. Significant increases in the damping of the steel frame can be realized.