Experiments on steel MRF building with supplemental tendon system

An experimental and analytical study is presented that investigates the eff ectiveness of a supplemental damping system consisting of elastomeric sprin g dampers (ESD) and fuse-bars to mitigate the seismic response of steel str uctures. Steel structures generally possess significant flexibility and rel atively low inherent viscous damping. Under strong earthquake ground shakin g, large interstory drifts can be expected which in turn cause distress to both structural and nonstructural elements. In this study, a load-balancing tendon fuse+damper (TFD) system has been adopted, where sacrificial yieldi ng fuse-bars are used parallel to ESD devices to initially help stiffen the structure. A total of seven different configurations were tested with vari ous bracing as well as supplemental damping systems. It was both experiment ally observed and analytically shown that the proposed supplemental tendon system significantly attenuates the overall seismic response of the structu re. An improved velocity-dependent computational model for the ESD devices is presented and verified. Hence, benefits of using a load balancing-draped tendon profile are analytically investigated.