SUMMARYThis investigation deals with the torsional balance of the earthquake response and design of elastic asymmetric structures with frictional dampers. Plan asymmetry leads to an uneven lateral deformation demand among structural members and to unbalanced designs with larger capacities in some resisting planes. Frictional dampers are capable of controlling lateral-torsional coupling by placing the so-called empirical center of balance (ECB) of the structure at equal distance from all edges of the building. This rule is developed for single-story systems with linear and inelastic behavior. However, recently obtained theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that this rule carries over to multistory structures. Results show that the peak displacement demand at the building edges and that of resisting planes equidistant from the geometric center may be similar if the damper is optimally placed. It is also shown that torsional ampliÿcation of the edge displacements of arbitrary asymmetric structures relative to the displacement of the symmetric counterparts are approximately bound by a factor of 2. Furthermore, frictional dampers are equally e ective in controlling lateral-torsional coupling of torsionally exible as well as sti structures.
SUMMARYThis investigation deals with the measured seismic response of a six-storey asymmetric structural model with frictional dampers. Its main objective is to experimentally prove the concept of weak torsional balance for mass-and stiffness-eccentric model configurations. The goal is to control the torsional response of these asymmetric structures and to achieve, if possible, a weak form of torsional balance by placing the so-called empirical centre of balance (ECB) of the structure at equal distance from the edges of the building plan. The control of the dynamic response of asymmetric structures is investigated herein by using steel-teflon frictional dampers. As expected from theory, experimental results show that the mean-square and peak displacement demand at the flexible and stiff edges of the plan may be similar in magnitude if the dampers are optimally placed. Frictional dampers have proven equally effective in controlling lateral-torsional coupling of torsionally flexible as well as stiff structures. On the other hand, it is shown that impulsive ground motions require larger frictional capacities to achieve weak torsional balance.
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