Development and Evaluation of Procedures for Analysis and Design of Buildings with Fluidic Self-Centering Systems

Keywords: Earthquake engineering, Self-centering systems, Fluid viscous damper, Residual drift, Risk assessment, Collapse assessment

Abstract: This report presents a study on the use of fluidic devices as elements of self-centering systems for buildings. The behavior of these devices is described based on experimental and analytical results for varying conditions of preload, history of motion and temperature. Mathematical models of the behavior of the devices are presented and validated by comparison to experimental results. Analyses of systems for a wide range of parameters are performed and the results are used to verify simplified methods of analysis and to develop design and analysis procedures for buildings with fluidic self-centering systems that follow the paradigm of Chapter 18 of the ASCE 7 Standard. Three and six-story buildings without and with self-centering systems are designed per the developed procedures and analyzed by nonlinear response history analysis with due considerations for the behavior of the devices and of the yielding structural system. The seismic risk-assessment of these buildings is also investigated in terms of collapse and residual drift for a particular site location by applying the probabilistic approach of FEMA P695. Finally, a pilot study of using fluidic self-centering devices instead of fluid damping devices as elements of seismic isolation systems is presented.