• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.289-301
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• 2018

The rigid steel connections were suffered severe damage because of low rotational capacity during earthquakes. Hence, many investigations have been conducted on the connections of steel structures. As a solution, steel slit dampers were employed at the connections to prevent brittle failure of connections and damage of main structural members. Slit damper is a plate or a standard section with a number of slits in the web. The objective of this paper is to improve the seismic performance of steel slit dampers in the beam-to-column connection using finite element modeling. With reviewing the previous investigations, it is observed that slit dampers were commonly fractured in the end parts of the struts. This may be due to the low participation of struts middle parts in the energy dissipation. Thus, in the present study slit damper with elliptic slits is proposed in such a way that end parts of struts have more energy absorption area than struts middle parts. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of geometric parameters of elliptic slit damper such as strut width, strut height and plate thickness on the seismic performance of the beam-to-column connection. The stress distribution is improved along the struts in the proposed slit damper with elliptic slits and the stress concentration is decreased in the end parts of struts. The average contributions of elliptic slit dampers, beam and other sections to the energy dissipation are about 97.19%, 2.12% and 0.69%, respectively.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.473-484
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• 2017

In this study a seismic retrofit scheme for a building structure was presented using steel plate slit dampers. The energy dissipation capacity of the slit damper used in the retrofit was verified by cyclic loading test. Genetic algorithm was applied to find out the optimum locations of the slit dampers satisfying the target displacement. The seismic retrofit of the model structure using the slit dampers was compared with the retrofit with enlarging shear walls. A simple damper distribution method was proposed using the capacity spectrum method along with the damper distribution pattern proportional to the inter-story drifts. The validity of the simple story-wise damper distribution procedure was verified by comparing the results of genetic algorithm. It was observed that the capacity-spectrum method combined with the simple damper distribution pattern leaded to satisfactory story-wise distribution of dampers compatible with the optimum solution obtained from genetic algorithm.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.221-227
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• 2019

In this paper passive seismic retrofit devices for building structures developed by the author in recent years are introduced. The proposed damping devices were developed by slightly modifying the configuration of conventional devices and enhancing their effectiveness. First a seismic retrofit system consisting of a pin-jointed steel frame and rotational friction dampers installed at each corner of the steel frame was developed. Then two types of steel slit dampers were developed; box-type slit damper and multi-slit damper. In addition, hybrid dampers were developed by combining a slit damper and a friction damper connected in parallel. Finally a self-centering system was developed by using preloaded tendons and viscous dampers connected in series. For each retrofit system developed, an appropriate analytical model was developed, and the seismic performance was verified by loading test and earthquake analysis of case study structures. The experimental and analysis results show that the proposed systems can be used efficiently to enhance the seismic performance of building structures.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.79-90
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• 2019

This study introduces new connections that connect the beam to the column with slit dampers. Plastic deformations and damages concentrate on slit dampers. The slit dampers prevent plastic damages of column, beam, welds and panel zone and act as fuses. The slit dampers were prepared with IPE profiles that had some holes in the webs. In this paper, two experimental specimens were made. In first specimen (SDC1), just one slit damper connected the beam to the column and one IPE profile with no holes connected the bottom flange of the beam to the column. The second specimen (SDC2) had two similar dampers which connected the top and bottom flange of the beam to the column. Cyclic loading was applied on Specimens. The cyclic displacements conditions continued until 0.06 radian rotation of connection. The experimental observations showed that the bending moment of specimen SDC2 increased until 0.04 story drift. In specimen SDC1, the bending moment decreases after 0.03 story drift. Test results indicate the high performance of the proposed connection. Based on the results, the specimen with two slit damper (SDC2) has higher seismic performance and dissipates more energy in loading process than specimen SDC1. Theoretical formulas were extended for the proposed connections. Numerical studies have been done by ABAQUS software. The theoretical and numerical results had good agreements with the experimental data. Based on the experimental and numerical investigations, the high ductility of connection is obtained from plastic damages of slit dampers. The most flexural moment of specimen SDC1 occurred at 3% story drift and this value was 1.4 times the plastic moment of the beam section. This parameter for SDC2 was 1.73 times the plastic moment of the beam section and occurred at 4% story drift. The dissipated energy ratio of SDC2 to SDC1 is equal to 1.51.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.1291-1311
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• 2015

This study investigates the seismic energy dissipation capacity of a hybrid passive damper composed of a friction and a hysteretic slit damper. The capacity of the hybrid device required to satisfy a given target performance of a reinforced concrete moment resisting frame designed with reduced design base shear is determined based on the ASCE/SEI 7-10 process, and the seismic performances of the structures designed without and with the hybrid dampers are verified by nonlinear dynamic analyses. Fragility analysis is carried out to investigate the probability of a specified limit state to be reached. The analysis results show that in the structure with hybrid dampers the residual displacements are generally reduced and the dissipated inelastic energy is mostly concentrated on the dampers. At the Moderate to Extensive damage states the fragility turned out to be smallest in the structure with the hybrid dampers.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.633-646
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• 2018

This study investigated the seismic performance of a hybrid damper composed of a steel slit plate and friction pads, and an optimum retrofit scheme was developed based on life cycle cost. A sample hybrid damper was tested under cyclic loading to confirm its validity as a damping device and to construct its nonlinear analysis model. The effectiveness of the optimum damper distribution schemes was investigated by comparing the seismic fragility and the life cycle costs of the model structure before and after the retrofit. The test results showed that the damper behaved stably throughout the loading history. Numerical analysis results showed that the slit-friction hybrid dampers optimally distributed based on life cycle cost proved to be effective in minimizing the failure probability and the repair cost after earthquakes.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.645-664
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• 2021

There is a growing need of seismic retrofit of existing non-seismically designed structures in Korea after the 2016 Gyeongju and 2017 Pohang earthquakes, especially school buildings which experienced extensive damage during those two earthquakes. To this end, a steel multi-slit damper (MSD) was developed in this research which can be installed inside of partition walls of school buildings. Full-scale two-story RC frames were tested with and without the proposed dampers. The frames had structural details similar to school buildings constructed in the 1980s in Korea. The details of the experiments were described in detail, and the test results were validated using the analysis model. The developed seismic retrofit strategy was applied to a case study school building structure, and its seismic performance was evaluated before and after retrofit using the MSD. The results show that the developed retrofit strategy can improve the seismic performance of the structure to satisfy a given target performance level.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.93-101
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• 2024

This paper presents an experimental and analytical study on a steel slit damper designed as an energy dissipative device for earthquake protection of structures considering soil-structure interaction. The steel slit damper is made of a steel plate with a number of slits cut out of it. The slit damper has an advantage as a seismic energy dissipation device in that the stiffness and the yield force of the damper can be easily controlled by changing the number and size of the vertical strips. Cyclic loading tests of the slit damper are carried out to verify its energy dissipation capability, and an analytical model is developed validated based on the test results. The seismic performance of a case study building is then assessed using nonlinear dynamic analysis with and without soil-structure interaction. The soil-structure system turns out to show larger seismic responses and thus seismic retrofit is required to satisfy a predefined performance limit state. The developed slit dampers are employed as a seismic energy dissipation device for retrofitting the case study structure taking into account the soil-structure interaction. The seismic performance evaluation of the model structure shows that the device works stably and dissipates significant amount of seismic energy during earthquake excitations, and is effective in lowering the seismic response of structures standing on soft soil.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.339-347
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• 2022

Retrofitting in reinforced concrete structures has been one of the most important research topics in recent years. There are several methods for retrofitting RC moment-resisting frames. the most important of which is the use of steel bracing systems with yielding dampers. With a proper design of yielding dampers, the stiffness of RC frame systems can be increased to the required extent so that the ductility of the structure is not significantly reduced. In the present study, two experimental samples of a one-third scale RC moment-resisting frame were loaded in the laboratory. In these experiments, the retrofitting effect of RC frames was investigated using Non-uniform Slit Dampers (NSDs). Based on the experimental results of the samples, seismic parameters, i.e., stiffness, ductility, ultimate strength, strength reduction coefficient, and energy dissipation capacity, were compared. The results demonstrated that the retrofitted frame had very significant growth in terms of stiffness, ultimate strength, and energy dissipation capacity. Although the strength reduction factor and ductility decreased in the retrofitted sample. In general, the behavior of the frame with NSDs was evaluated better than the bare frame.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.03a
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• pp.552-559
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• 2005

The resistance of a structure against an earthquake is related to its ability to absorb the seismic input energy. The development of devices for dissipating the seismically induced energy on the structure is a subject that is receiving large attentionin the field of earthquake engineering. One example of these devices is the steel plate with slits. In this paper, a connection with a slit-type steel plate damper installed at each ends of wide-flange section beam, as an energy absorption element, was proposed. A series of experiment was performed to investigate their behavior and structural characteristic. The main parameters were the aspect ratio of the struts in slit plates, thickness of the struts and height of the vertical plates. Test results indicated that most of the energy was absorbed by plastic deformation of slit plate dampers.