A rotary lead viscoelastic damper with force-resisting capacity: Experimental verification and parametric analysis

The seismic safety of buildings can be improved by installing energy dissipators. A rotary lead viscoelastic damper (RLVD) with force-resisting capacity is proposed in this paper. RLVD consists of laminated rubber, lead rods, a cylindrical pin, and steel plates. The RLVD will rotate around the cylindrical pin when an earthquake shakes the building, resulting in the shaking energy mainly being dissipated by the plastic deformation of lead rods. To justify the reasonability and feasibility of RLVD, a prototype of RLVD was manufactured and tested under cyclic loading. The test results showed that the working mechanism of RLVD is reasonable and effective. The hysteretic curves of RLVD were plump and characterized by a bilinear behavior. A numerical model of RLVD in Abaqus was established and calibrated by the test results. A parametric analysis was conducted to further investigate the effect of the key design parameters of RLVD on its mechanical behavior. The parameter analysis showed that the number and diameter of lead rods have little effect on the mechanical properties of RLVD under the constraint of the same total cross-section area of lead rods. The yielding moment and energy dissipation of RLVD were affected by the distance from the center of the lead rod to the center of the cylindrical pin while the post-yielding stiffness of RLVD was affected by the thickness and shear modulus of the laminated rubber. The concept of the RLVD is justified.