TEMPERATURE EFFECT OF VISCOELASTIC DAMPERS DURING EARTHQUAKES

Viscoelastic dampers have been adopted for improving the seismic resis tance of structures. One of the major difficulties is the modeling of the temperature effect of dampers on the structural responses during e arthquakes. This paper is aimed at the influence of the temperature on the energy-absorbing features of the viscoelastic dampers. Not only t he capacity of the energy dissipation but also the stiffness of the da mpers are dependent on ambient temperatures. That leads to quite diffe rent behavior of the structure at different temperature levels while t he viscoelastic dampers are added to the structure. In this study the behavior of a 10-story building equipped with viscoelastic dampers is examined while it is subjected to earthquake ground motions. Numerical results show that the energy-absorbing capacity and stiffness of the viscoelastic damper decreases with increasing the ambient temperature. The responses, including displacements and stresses, of the given exa mples are significantly reduced while viscoelastic dampers are added t o it. The efficiency of the added dampers on the reduction of the stru ctural responses decreases at higher temperatures.