A DESIGN METHODOLOGY FOR SUPPLEMENTAL DAMPING FOR SEISMIC PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT OF FRAME STRUCTURES

Supplemental damping using passive energy dissipation (PED) devices is often used for enhancing the seismic performance of a seismically deficient structure to reduce the seismic response under earthquake loading. Such PED devices are normally incorporated within the frame structure between adjacent floors through different bracing schemes like diagonal, chevron, scissors and toggle or through non-structural in-fill walls, so that they efficiently enhance the overall energy dissipation ability of the seismically deficient frame structure under earthquake loading. These PED devices function based on the large and stable energy dissipation obtained using energy dissipation mechanisms like visco-elastic and elasto-plastic. This paper presents a methodology based on the direct displacement based design (DBD) for designing PED devices for providing supplemental damping to enhance the energy dissipation ability of frame structures subjected to earthquake loading. The presented design methodology is validated through an experimental study consisting of shake table tests of sweep sine, steady state and seismic types, conducted on a single bay-three storey reinforced concrete (RC) frame structure incorporated with designed visco-elastic PED devices.