Numerical Simulation Of Structures Equipped With Friction Energy Dissipation Devices Subjected To Seismic Load

Abstract

The safety and the prevention of collapsing of buildings designed for inhabitation have been two of the major concerns of humanity since the early times. For this, since the early 70's various devices have been designed to give an amount of extra damping to structures, such as: metallic, visco-elastic and frictional devices. These latter have proved to be adequate and cheap. For this and other reasons, this paper deals with the numerical simulation of structures equipped with friction energy dissipation devices. The dynamic behavior of such devices is highly non-linear, therefore at the present there is a lack of precise and reliable numerical models, and the clear demonstration of the efficiency of these elements is not completely fulfilled. A non-linear numerical model developed by the authors simulates the dynamic behavior of structures incorporating friction energy dissipation devices. This numerical model consists of an algorithm that carries out step-by-step time integration, and it's based on Newmark's method. The friction force acting on the dissipators is assumed to follow Coulomb's law of dry friction. The results obtained are compared to those got with the commercial software ADINA. and the agreement is good. Besides, preliminary results show that friction dissipators reduce substantially the dynamic response of structures. The numerical model can simulate the response of structures when affected by dynamic actions. such as wind and earthquake loads.