Fractional-Order Zener Model with Temperature-Order Equivalence for Viscoelastic Dampers

Abstract

Viscoelastic (VE) dampers show good performance in dissipating energy, being widely used for reducing vibration in engineering structures caused by earthquakes and winds. Experimental studies have shown that ambient temperature has great influence on the mechanical behavior of VE dampers. Therefore, it is important to accurately model VE dampers considering the effect of temperature. In this paper, a new fractional-order Zener (AEF-Zener) model of VE dampers is proposed. Firstly, the important influence of fractional orders on the energy dissipation ability of materials is analyzed. Secondly, an equivalent AEF-Zener model is developed that incorporates the ambient temperature and fractional-order equivalence principle. Finally, the chaotic fractional-order particle swarm optimization (CFOPSO) algorithm is used to determine the model’s parameters. The accuracy of the AEF-Zener model is verified by comparing model simulations with experimental results. This study is helpful for designing and analyzing vibration reduction techniques for civil structures with VE dampers under the influence of temperature.