A novel energy dissipation damper for multi-level earthquakes

This paper presents a novel energy dissipation damper for multi-level earthquakes. The dampers possess two obvious yield points by using the preset gaps, so the dampers can realize graded yielding energy dissipation under earthquakes of different intensities. Firstly, the working mechanism and configuration details were introduced. Secondly, the cyclic loading tests were carried out on four specimens with different parameters. Subsequently, the ABAQUS program was used to simulate the deformation development process of the damper. Finally, the quadrilinear kinematic hardening model of the damper was proposed by the theoretical analysis. The test results show that the dampers possess stable energy dissipation behavior and can effectively achieve graded yielding energy dissipation under earthquakes of the multi-level intensities, the simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results, indicating that the established finite element model can simulate the hysteretic behavior of the dampers well. The calculation results of quadrilinear kinematic hardening model are in good accordance with test results, demonstrating that the proposed restoring force model can reasonably predict the cyclic response of the damper.