Comparison of X-shaped metallic dampers with fluid viscous dampers and influence of their placement on seismic response of the building

Abstract

This paper presents the comparative study of seismic performances of X-shaped metallic damper (XMD) and fluid viscous damper (FVD) under eight different earthquake ground motions and how the damper placement influences the seismic response of the building. For this purpose five, eight and ten storey reinforced concrete buildings were used and each of the dampers were installed in different locations of the building that is the dampers were placed at bottom floors, alternative floors and all floors of the building and subjected to nonlinear time history analysis under eight different earthquake ground motions. This paper focuses on effect of these dampers on the seismic response of the structure like lateral displacement, base shear, storey drift and energy dissipation. The results show that fluid viscous damper performed slightly better than X-shaped metallic damper in reducing the roof displacement, storey drift and the results are vice versa in reducing the base shear. For earthquakes with low ‘g’ value (PGA = 0.29 g), fluid viscous damper dissipated more amount of input energy when compared to X-shaped metallic damper whereas for earthquakes with high ‘g’ value (PGA = 0.44 g), X-shaped metallic damper dissipated more amount of input energy. It is observed that fluid viscous damper is more suitable for earthquakes with low ‘g’ value and X-shaped metallic damper is more suitable for earthquakes with high ‘g’ value. Dampers placed in all floors of the building performed well in dissipating the input energy and reducing the roof displacement, storey drift. Dampers placed in the bottom floors performed well in reducing the base shear.