Hysteretic damping of shear panel energy dissipater

This paper describes an experimental investigation of a new earthquake damper for civil structures. It utilizes the energy dissipative capability of plastic shear deformation of thin steel plates welded inside a standard SHS steel section. Its performance is verified by fifteen cyclic and monotonic tests. Experiments showed that this light-weight damper exhibited stable behavior and was capable of dissipating a significant amount of energy. Its performance is influenced by the plate slenderness ratio and by the rigidity of its boundary elements. Slender plates buckled in shear, causing pinching of the hysteresis loop without significant strength degradation. The magnitude of damping offered by the dissipater is quantified. Fabrication, implementation and replacement of the damper proved to be easy and inexpensive. The seismic performance of a structure equipped with shear panel dissipaters is demonstrated using a numerical example.