Resumen

TOVAR, CAROLINA  y  LOPEZ, OSCAR A. Influence of the position, number and dampers arrangement on the seismic response of low rise structures.. Rev. Fac. Ing. UCV [online]. 2007, vol.22, n.2, pp.111-126. ISSN 0798-4065.

The goal of this paper is to asses how the position, number and arrangement of dampers affect the seismic response and the dynamic properties of low rise structures. To fulfill this objective, five-story frame and wall structures with two values of the fundamental period, 0.20s y 2.00s, and subjected to five earthquake ground motions were considered. Several distributions of dampers of varying number and location were considered, while maintaining the same amount of damping in each case. The results showed that the damper placement influences significantly the structural response. A large number of dampers does not always lead to the best benefit in terms of drift reduction. If one damper is placed, this should be located on the first story in order to obtain the best overall drift reduction. The best damper placement is one damper per story; if the number of dampers is less than the number of stories, one damper per story beginning at the lowest story is the best choice. In wall structures, increasing the number of dampers leads to less drift reduction than in frame structures. A uniform damper distribution is the best damper placement for the frame structures; however placing the dampers in the lower stories is the best arrangement for the wall structure.

Palabras clave : non-classical damping; damping devices; low rise structures; dampers arrangement; dampers position.