Development of a novel friction damped joint for damage-plasticity control of precast concrete walls

Abstract

The development of a novel friction damped joint (FDJ), which can be installed between two precast concrete walls as a type of vertical connector, is presented in this paper. The specially designed internal mechanism of the proposed FDJ can amplify the vertical slip displacement between precast concrete walls whilst dissipating energy at the same time. Meanwhile, the FDJ can provide enough lateral strength and stiffness to resist vertical slips induced by wind loads and earthquakes. After experimental and analytical studies on the FDJ parameters, the energy dissipated by the proposed FDJ is found to be independent of the excitation frequency. Subsequently, to study the effectiveness of the FDJ conveniently, a simplified numerical model is proposed. The simulation results indicate that, the main features of the FDJ can be captured by the simplified numerical model. To further illustrate the advantage of the FDJ when considering damage-plasticity control, simulated precast walls with different joints are analyzed under the lateral loading. The results show that the FDJ can consume a significant amount of energy, thus protecting the precast walls from damage. The FDJ plays a great role in reducing the plastic damage that may be sustained by the main structure.