Open Space Damping System

Published February 25, 2019 This content is archived.

Graduate Students: Erkan Polat

Principal Investigator: Michael C. Constantinou

Project Completion Date: 08-31-2016

A novel configuration for damping devices with the main advantage of preserving open space within the frame of installation was developed and tested. The acquired test data were used for validating analytical and computational models.

Summary

Print

Seismic and wind energy dissipation systems are typically installed in buildings within configurations that visually and physically obstruct an otherwise accessible area within the bay of the frame to which they are installed.  This drawback has resulted in the occasional rejection of use of damping systems by architects. This project introduces a novel configuration for damping devices with the main advantage of preserving open space within the frame of installation-hence the name “open space damping system”. An experimental study of a large scale model with the open space damping system was conducted and used to acquire data for validating the developed analytical and computational models.   Testing consisted of (a) a single portal frame tested under imposed lateral motion, and (b) a single story 32kip model tested on the shake table under seismic excitation.  Three different configurations of the open space system in three different structural system configurations were tested.   The tests demonstrated the increase in damping provided by the damping system.  Comparisons of experimental results in terms of structural drift, floor accelerations and force-displacement loops to results obtained by computational tools demonstrate the validity of the computational models.

Report

Sponsors

This project was supported by the Turkish Government in terms of a scholarship (stipend and tuition) for the graduate student and by Taylor Devices, Inc.