Evaluation of a developed bypass viscous damper performance

In this study, the dynamic behavior of a developed bypass viscous damper is evaluated. Bypass viscous damper has a flexible hose as an external orifice through which the inside fluid transfer from one side to the other side of the inner piston. Accordingly, the viscosity coefficient of the damper can be adjusted using geometrical dimensions of the hose. Moreover, the external orifice acts as a thermal compensator and alleviates viscous heating of the damper. According to experimental results, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model, a numerical formula and the simplified Maxwell model are found and assessed; therefore, the verification of numerical and computational models are evaluated for simulating. Also, a simplified procedure is proposed to design structures with bypass viscous dampers. The design procedure is applied to design an 8-story hospital structure with bypass viscous dampers, and it is compared with the same structure, which is designed with concentric braces and without dampers. Nonlinear time history analyses revealed that the hospital with viscous damper experiences less structural inelastic demands and fewer story accelerations which mean fewer demands on nonstructural elements. Moreover, seismic behaviors of nonstructural masonry claddings are also compared in the cases of hospital structure with and without dampers.     

Seismic performance of chevron braced frames with shape memory alloy vertical shear link

Chevron braced steel frames with vertical shear link have reliable displacement dependent dampers with sufficient strength and ductility to dissipate energy of strong earthquakes through inelastic mechanisms. In this study, shape memory alloy with its superelastic behavior is utilized as material of vertical shear link to improve the ductility characteristics of the system and decrease residual displacements in the structures due to its self‐centering capability. Nonlinear time‐history, incremental dynamic analysis, and dynamic pushover analysis techniques are used to investigate the behavior of two different four‐ and eight‐story frames with steel vertical shear link (STVL) and shape memory alloy vertical shear link (SMVL) under various earthquake records. The results show that there is a negligible residual displacement in the structures with SMVL, although considerable residual displacements can be observed in the structures with STVL. For instance, when the eight‐story frame is subjected to the Northridge earthquake, a 12‐cm residual displacement is observed in the structures with STVL, whereas the structures with SMVL might experience just 3‐cm residual displacement.