A New Device for Dissipating Energy and Attenuating Dynamic Excitations

A new energy-dissipating device, which works based on material deformation, was developed. The mechanical behaviour of this device was studied through numerical modelling, using Finite Element Methods (FEM). The nonlinear study of the behaviour of the device led to a load-displacement curve which, to a great degree, represented an elastic-perfectly plastic response. The device was devised to be used in various circumstances in an energy-dissipating as well as response-reducing capacity. In particular, it was originally meant to be used for connecting bridge girders of a fast track railroad, located in an earthquake-prone area in the South East Asia, to their piers, to damp the earthquake excitations in the horizontal plane and normal to the traffic.In this regard, the responses of the bridge girders to various previous earthquake records, including those of El-Centro (1940), Kobe (1995), Loma Prieta (1989),Northridge (1994), Taiwan (1999), and Turkey (1999), were worked out and studied numerically. They were further compared with those of their device-free (rigidly-connected) counterparts. It is shown that by using this device, various dynamic response parameters of the system, particularly the ‘base shear,’ were drastically attenuated and reduced.