Buckling Response and Elastic Stiffness of Butterfly Dampers

Butterfly dampers dissipate energy through the flexural, shear, or axial response of the strips when the device is subjected to inelastic cyclic deformation. The buckling response, elastic stiffness, and cyclic performance of non-uniform steel butterfly dampers have been studied in this paper. Validated material and geometric nonlinear finite element models in the ABAQUS has been used to perform a comprehensive parametric study on a wide range of geometrical parameters to evaluate the response of non-compact butterfly dampers. The results showed that although the low-cycle-fatigue response of butterfly dampers can be improved by altering the side edge shapes, the buckling capacity and elastic stiffness of non-uniform strips would decrease in comparison with uniform ones. Hence several analytical equations were provided to quantitative prediction of the buckling capacity and elastic stiffness of butterfly dampers.