The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

A methodology for design of viscoelastic dampers in earthquake-resistant structures

Abbas, Humayun; Kelly, James M.

UCB/EERC-93/09, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1993-11, 1 vol. (520/A22/1994)

A comprehensive methodology is proposed for the design of viscoelastic dampers in earthquake-resistant structures. The preliminary design is based on a suite of design spectra that are generated by dynamic analyses of simplified analytical models for viscoelastically damped structures and address various design and performance parameters of the system. Design parameters obtained from the spectra are used to design individual viscoelastic dampers and associated braces using a drift-related procedure, with an assumed mode shape for the fundamental mode of vibration of the viscoelastically damped structure. The proposed design procedure is demonstrated by a detailed example for the design of viscoelastic dampers in a nine-story moment-resisting steel frame.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-93-09.pdf (7 MB)