i
ANALYTICAL, NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMANTAL
STUDIES OF AN INNOVATIVE HYSTERETIC DAMPER
Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering (DICI)
University of Pisa
Fascilla Michele
Supervisors: Prof. Ing. Walter Salvatore Dott. Ing. Francesco Morelli Dott. Ing. Christiane Butz
iii
ABSTRACT
ANALYTICAL, NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMANTAL STUDIES OF AN INNOVATIVE HYSTERETIC DAMPER
Fascilla Michele
Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering University of Pisa
Supervisors: Prof. Ing. Walter Salvatore Dott. Ing. Francesco Morelli Dott. Ing. Christiane Butz
For Anti-seismic energy dissipation devices, plastic deformation of steel is one of the most effective mechanisms available for the dissipation of energy, for both economic and technical point of view. An innovative concept of a steel hysteretic damping device (MAURER Compact Steel Damper - MCSD) by inserting three pipes, which are loaded alternating in tension and compression, leads to a compact device and a reduced risk of buckling failure.
The aim of this Master Thesis is the engineering and design of a prototype tube-in-tube steel hysteretic damper based on analytical and numerical calculation and the verification by testing.
The introduction is focused on literature survey of steel hysteretic dampers used as anti-seismic dumping device regarding design and construction principles. It is followed by analytical design calculations and comparison with numerical FE-simulation of the tube-in-tube steel hysteretic dumper loaded in tension and in compression in the plastic high strain range using a bilinear stress-strain material model. The design is concerned an engineering solution for a tube-in-tube steel hysteretic dumper using commercial pipes that is investigated on low cycle fatigue. The prototype dimensions are evaluated by material characteristics obtained by tensile test made on probes cut from the commercial pipes. Therefore, the design, the execution and the evaluation of tensile test are used as input for numerical simulations with the real measured stress-strain behaviour to obtain an acceptable curve to compare with the experimental results. As conclusion it is made an execution and evaluation of pre-test and prototype tests of the tube-in-tube steel hysteretic damper.
