Experimental and analytical investigation of WT‐shapes stiffened steel panel dampers

Abstract

The three‐segment steel panel damper (TSPD) is a type of shear panel damper (SPD) used for dissipating seismic energy. TSPDs consist of an inelastic core (IC) and two outer elastic joints (EJs), with the IC having a weaker shear strength than the EJs. Buckling restraining stiffeners delay shear buckling, and end stiffeners stabilize the IC to facilitate force transfer. However, the fabrication of TSPDs may be costly due to the use of built‐up shapes. This prompted the investigation of a more cost‐effective option, namely the WT‐shapes stiffened steel panel damper (WSPD). The WSPD can be built from a single hot rolled wide flange steel shape with four WT‐shapes cut from it. A practical procedure for seismic design using this method is developed in this study. The design procedure for IC web stiffeners is also considered. We propose elastic stiffness calculation methods for WSPDs, which match the analytical results of the proposed model using commercial software. Two full‐scale 2.6 m tall WSPD specimens were fabricated and tested. Different target IC buckling shear deformations of 0.08 and 0.12 radians resulted in two different stiffener designs for specimen WSPD‐0L2T and WSPD‐1L2T, respectively. The specimens had excellent energy dissipation performance. WSPD‐0L2T IC web buckled later than predicted, while WSPD‐1L2T IC web buckled slightly earlier than expected. The elastic lateral stiffness and maximum shear strength computed from the proposed procedures agree with the experimental results within 5%. The experimental responses of the two specimens can also be accurately simulated using Abaqus finite element model analysis.