PFI-TT: Self-Centering Seismic Dampers for Resilience-Based Earthquake Design of Buildings

University Of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to create a full-scale seismic damper that can ensure rapid recovery and reoccupation of buildings after a strong earthquake. A structure’s ability to re-center after a large seismic event strongly affects post-earthquake building downtime, with significant economic consequences. The proposed system can mitigate the drawbacks in current design and address the continued functionality after a hazard event. The proposed project seeks to advance the knowledge in shape memory alloy-based seismic control devices by revealing cyclic response, failure behavior, and repairability of a full-scale seismic damper. This project advances a self-centering, re-usable and practical seismic damper providing non-sacrificial energy dissipation with high re-centering capabilities. Computational modeling will supplement these experimental campaigns and allow simulation of the proposed devices and their failure modes and inclusion of models in reliably analyzing response of buildings. This project will also lead to formulation of fragility specifications for a self-centering damping system, which will enable accurate seismic loss and functionality assessments of buildings designed with such systems. The research will provide recommendations for the design of buildings with the proposed dampers such that high seismic performance objectives stated in terms of post-earthquake re-occupancy and functional recovery time are easily achieved. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.