Development and experimental verification of self-centering disc slit damper for buildings

The damage avoidance design (DAD) philosophy is oriented towards the low-damage design of building structures compared to the previous conventional ductile design. Low-damage structures with supplemental damping and self-centering ability are one of the main aspects of the DAD philosophy to decrease irreparable damage and enhance the seismic performance of structures. This research proposes an efficient, double-acting self-centering hysteretic damper by combining the widely used steel slit dampers and prestressed disc springs for building structures. The proposed seismic protection device is called Self-Centering Disc Slit Damper (SC-DSD), which consists of two square standard hollow steel sections, nested together with an assembly of prestressed disc springs within the steel sections. The performance of SC-DSD is assessed experimentally through a static cyclic loading test to evaluate the global system's dissipation capacity, self-centering ability, and hysteresis loop. A simplified numerical model is developed to predict the self-centering force-displacement relationship of the proposed device. Finally, the seismic force bearing capacity of the proposed damper is compared with the conventional slit damper.