The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Earthquake simulator testing of steel plate added damping and stiffness elements

Whittaker, Andrew S.; Bertero, Vitelmo V.; Alonso, Javier; Thompson, Christopher L.

UCB/EERC-89/02, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1989-01, 208 pages (515/W495/1989)

Added damping and stiffness (ADAS) elements are mechanical devices designed to be installed in either new or existing buildings. ADAS elements can serve to: (1) increase the strength, stiffness, and usable energy dissipation capacity of a conventional ductile moment resisting space frame (DMRSF) and (2) substantially increase the energy dissipation capacity of a concentrically braced system. The principal objective of this study was to investigate the behavior of steel X-plate ADAS elements. The ultimate goals of the research were to determine the degree of effectiveness of ADAS elements for seismic applications in general and for retrofitting DMRSF. A series of integrated analytical and experimental studies were undertaken, including an experimental evaluation of the mechanical characteristics of 4-plate, 6-plate, and 7-plate ADAS elements (component tests) and (2) a series of earthquake simulator tests on a DMRSF retrofitted with ADAS elements.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-89-02.pdf (15 MB)