Displacement-based design of an energy dissipating system for seismic upgrading of existing masonry structures

A displacement-based method for the design of an energy dissipating system is proposed in this article. The device, which is composed of added concrete walls equipped with hysteretic Added Damping and Stiffness (ADAS) dampers, is aimed at upgrading the seismic behavior of existing masonry structures. The design method is based upon a simplified model of the overall structure-dissipating system. The proposed displacement-based design procedure was tested by means of inelastic response-time history analyses considering different masonry structures. The results of the analyses were compared with the seismic behavior expected from the design.