Seismic design of pre-cast reinforced concrete structures using additional viscous dampers

Pre-cast concrete structures are commonly assembled at construction site so that structural systems obtained are not capable of transmitting bending moments at joints. Such structural systems show a relatively large flexibility with respect to lateral seismic loads. This characteristic often hampers the satisfaction of the interstorey drift limitations imposed by most of the seismic codes. In this paper, the use of added viscous dampers is compared with the use of traditional lateral-resisting bracing systems in order to provide such structures with the necessary lateral stiffness and resistance. The comparison is here developed with reference to the executive design of a shopping mall building in Rimini (Italy). The results obtained indicate that the use of viscous dampers may provide substantial advantages in the seismic design of such structures.