A hybrid constitutive model of high-damping viscoelastic materials used for vibration control of civil structures

Abstract

The dynamic mechanical properties of high-damping viscoelastic (VE) materials exhibit significant frequency and temperature dependences in the glass transition zone. However, the current state of VE constitutive models face a challenge in balancing the accuracy, simplicity, and ease of structural dynamic analysis. In this study, a power-law and exponent-law hybrid model is proposed to model the frequency-dependent and temperature-dependent complex modulus of VE materials. The equivalence of hybrid model and existing VE constitutive models is presented. A total of 12 groups of experimental data are collected to validate the accuracy of hybrid model. An efficient numerical method for the hybrid model is proposed and then validated through a viscoelastically damped frame. Results show that the hybrid model is equivalent to two rheological models or fractional derivative models owning to the unshared model coefficients. The hybrid model is superior to the eight-parameter fractional derivative model in predicting the complex modulus over a wide equivalent frequency range. The proposed numerical method performs quite well in calculating seismic responses of proportional and non-proportional damped frames.