Concept and performance testing of an all-steel miniature dual stiffness damper

摘要

The double-stage yield buckling-restrained braces gradually play a role in different floors, so as to control the structural deformation pattern and hinder the weak-story collapsing. In this study, a novel all-steel damper called the miniature dual stiffness damper (MDSD) was proposed, which had the advantages of simple assembly and low cost. A series of tests was performed under quasi-static test to address the hysteretic behavior of MDSDs with different stiffness ratios of the large yield segment to the small yield segment, Kyl/Kys. The test results demonstrated thatMDSDs had a stable hysteretic behavior, and the dual stiffness can be achieved by yielding successively in small and large yield segments. The second stiffness of the MDSD increased with the increase of Kyl/Kys when the elastic stiffness of the small yield segment kept unchanged. The low-cycle fatigue life of the MDSD was negatively correlated with the strain of the small yield segment. An in-series stiffness model for the MDSD was presented. The theoretical hysteretic curves of MDSDs were further obtained based on the proposed stiffness model, and a good accuracy was achieved. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.