A PROCEDURE FOR THE DIMENSIONING OF VISCOUS DAMPERS TO BE INSERTED IN BUILDING STRUCTURES, PART I: FORMULATION

Viscous dampers have widely proved their effectiveness in mitigating the effects of the seismic action upon building structures. In view of the large impact that use of such dissipative devices is already having and would most likely have soon in earthquake engineering applications, this paper presents a practical procedure for the seismic design of building structures equipped with viscous dampers. In detail, the five-step procedure aims at providing practical tools for an easy identification of the mechanical characteristics of the viscous dampers (i.e. damping coefficient values for chosen damping exponent, …) which allow to achieve target levels of performances (i.e. reduction in seismic response with respect to structures with no additional damping system). A companion paper provides an application of the proposed procedure to a two-storey precast r.c. building structure.