Seismic retrofit of structures using steel honeycomb dampers

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the seismic performance of a honeycomb shaped steel hysteretic damper applied to seismic retrofit or strengthening of a structure. The formulas for the initial stiffness and yield strength of a damper unit were derived based on the cell wall bending model, and the results were compared with those obtained from finite element analysis. Bilinear model of the honeycomb damper was developed based on the nonlinear force-displacement relationship obtained from finite element analysis. The honeycomb dampers were applied for seismic retrofit of a 15-story apartment building designed without considering seismic load and for seismic design of a 3-story moment frame designed with reduced seismic load. The analysis results showed that the honeycomb dampers were effective in the enhancement of seismic-load resisting capacity of the model structures.