Mechanical properties of a novel buckling restrained shear panel damper with octagon restraining plates

Abstract

AbstractSteel shear panel dampers (SPDs) have been widely used for the seismic protection of structures. The seismic performance of SPD is limited by the buckling deformation and low cycle fatigue tearing of the web. This study proposes a new‐type buckling restrained shear panel damper (BRSPD), in which two octagon restrainers are utilized instead of rectangular ones. The novel BRSPD is developed to prevent its web plate from stress concentration and tearing at the early stage. A basic mechanism for the novel BRSPD was proposed. Quasi‐static tests were conducted to examine the behavior of the BRSPDs. The influence of the factors, such as the configurations of the restrainers and the gap size between the restrainer and the web plate, were investigated. The experimental results indicated that the proposed octagon restrainers can effectively restrain the out‐of‐plane deformation of the web plate. The BRSPDs with the proposed restrainers presented better energy dissipation performance than both the conventional SPD and those with rectangular restraining plates. The shape and the thickness of the restrainers had significant influence on the performance of the damper, while adding grease or rubber between the restrainer and web plate had little effect. The BRSPD with no gap between the plates had the highest equivalent viscous damping ratio.