Development of hybrid rubber damper-restrainer (HRDR) system for structures under sever dynamic excitation

Abstract

Nowadays, high damping rubber materials are extensively implementing in various types of structure to mitigate harmful effect of imposed vibration and dynamic force to the structure. Although, the rubbers exhibit noticeable damping in the shear action, however, de-bounding, shear rupture and delamination of rubber layers under cyclic loads, undermine the load-bearing capacity of the rubber dampers and increase their maintenance costs. Hence, the action of the rubbers is considerably high under applied compression to generate resistant force to restrain the deformation.For this reason, in this research, a new hybrid rubber damper-restrainer (HRDR) system is proposed. The system comprises a high-damping rubber component designed to dissipate applied vibrations, along with a pair of hyper-elastic rubbers intended to restrain displacement. Therefore, the developed HRDR device is capable of dissipating vibrations while restraining large movements to prevent any damage and debounding of the rubber layers and also, protect the structure from excessive displacements.To examine the performance of the proposed device, the numerical model of a HRDR was developed using the finite element simulation and subsequently, nonlinear dynamic analyses were conducted for the 6 storey prototype steel structure furnished with HRDR device. The findings revealed that the structure equipped with the HRDR device exhibited outstanding response against applied earthquake excitation which is proving high efficiency of HRDR device to diminish vibration effect on structure and prevent any excessive deformations. The HRDR device is applicable to any types of framed structures through installing via chevron brace system in steel structures or short wall in reinforced concrete structures. Furthermore, the developed HRDR device can be implemented in bridge structures, between the deck and pier of bridge to effectively dissipate vibrations and restrain the movement of the bridge span under traffic loads.