Effect of rubber properties on the performance of Visco-Hyperelastic Damper (VHD)

Abstract

Visco-Hyperelastic Damper (VHD) is a combination of a viscoelastic (VE) material sandwiched between two metal belt rings. This VE material as the main part has a high impact on the damper performance. The rubber can induce acceptable performance of the damper in energy dissipation, even at very low levels of seismic excitations. Also, changing the dimensions or material of the rubber can change the performance of the damper according to the required behavior in the structure and can also provide the desired balance between stiffness and damping, which is one of the major problems of passive energy dissipation devices. Also, the large dimensions of the VE material can increase the efficiency of this material in the damper. Therefore, in this study, the effect of rubber on the performance of VHD is investigated using the FEM ABAQUS software, in three ways. First, the effect of rubber at different levels of excitation is investigated, second, the impact of adding rubber is assessed, and finally, the effect of the type of rubber on the overall behavior of the damper is studied. The high effect of VE material on damper behavior is shown in the results, where the rubber part in the general shape of the VHD dissipates up to more than 90 % of the input energy at low levels of excitation. Besides, the change of the type of rubber material has a great impact on the performance of the damper up to 600 % as well as its behavioral form.