Buckling Response and Elastic Stiffness of Butterfly Dampers

Butterfly dampers dissipate energy through the flexural, shear, or axial response ofthe strips when the device is subjected to inelastic cyclic deformation. The bucklingresponse, elastic stiffness, and cyclic performance of non-uniform steel butterflydampers have been studied in this paper. Validated material and geometric nonlinearfinite element models in the ABAQUS has been used to perform a comprehensiveparametric study on a wide range of geometrical parameters to evaluate theresponse of non-compact butterfly dampers. The results showed that although thelow-cycle-fatigue response of butterfly dampers can be improved by altering the sideedge shapes, the buckling capacity and elastic stiffness of non-uniform strips woulddecrease in comparison with uniform ones. Hence several analytical equations wereprovided to quantitative prediction of the buckling capacity and elastic stiffness ofbutterfly dampers.

Keywords:

Buckling , Finite element updating , Butterfly damper , Yielding device