This paper evaluates the hysteretic behavior of an innovative compressed elastomer structural damper and its applicability to seismic resistant design of steel moment resisting frames (MRFs). The damper is constructed by pre-compressing a high damping elastomeric material into steel tubes. This innovative construction results in viscous-like damping under small strains and friction-like damping under large strains. A hysteretic model for the damper is presented and calibrated using test data obtained under sinusoidal loading. A simplified design procedure is used to design seven different systems of steel MRFs combined with compressed elastomer dampers in which the properties of the MRFs and dampers were varied. The combined systems are designed to achieve performance which is similar to or better than the performance of conventional steel MRFs designed according to current seismic codes. Based on the results of nonlinear time history analyses, target properties for a new generation of compressed elastomer dampers are defined.
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