Seismic evaluation of steel structures retrofitted with supplemental elliptical damper

In the recent past, the application of various types of passive dampers (e.g., yielding metallic dampers) has become a common practice for improving seismic performance of the under-construction buildings and rehabilitation of existing constructions. In this study, a new elliptical metallic damper was introduced to improve the seismic behavior of existing steel structures. Among other parameters, geometrical characteristics are known to affect the seismic performance of the constructions rehabilitated with the proposed elliptical damper. Accordingly, the performance of the proposed damper was investigated through accurate numerical studies on various types of dampers considering various damper dimensions, ellipse major and minor axes length-to-plate thickness ratios, and placements of elliptical shear diaphragm. To study the proposed elliptical damper in terms of its effect on the seismic behavior of rehabilitated buildings, three benchmark structures with 3, 9, and 20 stories were used. Further, far-field and near-field earthquake records were used to undertake nonlinear dynamic analyses. In this work, the proposed elliptical damper was verified by the Abaqus finite-element software, and nonlinear time-history analyses were conducted in the SAP2000 software to check for seismic performance of rehabilitated structural frames with the considered damper. Results of the nonlinear dynamic analyses indicated the appropriate performance of the proposed elliptical damper in terms of reducing the seismic responses of the rehabilitated structures and suitable behavior of the proposed elliptical damper in dissipating the imposed earthquake energy to the structures. Based on these results, upon rehabilitation with the proposed damper, the 3-, 9-, and 20-story structures exhibited smaller maximum lateral roof displacements by 66, 64, and 31%, respectively.