Experimental and numerical study of locking steel plate damper for seismic resistance

Abstract

In this paper, a new metal energy dissipator named locking steel plate damper (LSPD) is proposed for structural seismic applications. The damper is easy to fabricate and convenient to install and replace. The LSPD consists of two locking steel plates with energy dissipating steel rings and an outer shell plate for peripheral restraint and steel ring reset. Experiments were conducted using a proposed static cyclic displacement loading regime, which loaded the two specimens. The results of experiment showed that the damper possessed excellent energy dissipation capability. Thirteen comparison models were designed by varying the radius, thickness and width of the ring and FE simulations were carried out. By comparing the simulation results of the 13 models, the effects of the steel ring design parameters on the energy dissipation capacity of the damper are summarized. Finally, the suggested formulas for the yield displacement and the practical formulas for the initial stiffness of the LSPD are presented through theoretical derivation and parametric analysis. The average error between theoretical and simulated values for the 13 models was 2.11%, with a maximum error of 7.33%, which provide reliable suggestions for the design and fabrication of the damper.