Seismic Performance and Parametric Study of a Winding Rope Fluid Viscous Damper (WRFVD) for Continuous Girder Bridges

To decrease the seismic response of continuous girder bridges, the seismic performance of a novel winding rope fluid viscous damper (WRFVD) was investigated. This device was installed between the sliding piers and superstructure, and connected to the superstructure by winding ropes. WRFVD can accommodate the thermal deformation of superstructure under service condition, and make the fixed pier and sliding piers bear the seismic loads together by establishing the friction connection between the sliding piers and superstructure under earthquake action. In this study, the theoretical mechanism of WRFVD is derived, and verified by a dynamic performance test. A shaking table test was conducted on a scaled three-span continuous girder bridge employing WRFVD. The test results showed that WRFVD can effectively reduce the seismic response of continuous girder bridges. The parametric study of WRFVD on a five-span continuous girder bridge was investigated. The parametric study shows that the seismic response of multi-span continuous girder bridge equipped with WRFVD decrease with the increasing damping coefficient and friction coefficient, and the decreasing damping index.