Investigating the performance of viscoelastic dampers (VED) under near-field earthquakes with directivity feature

Abstract

One of the most important factors that make structures vulnerable to earthquakes is the short distance between structures and epicenter. Near-field earthquakes have special properties, such as increasing acceleration applied to the structure, which distinguishes them from far-field earthquakes. Therefore, the absorption of input energy for structures located near the faults is very important. Hence, by rotating the earthquake acceleration time history and comparing the resulting spectral acceleration response, the angle which applies the greatest force to the structure on the earthquake directivity side is obtained, and then the performance of a steel structure with viscoelastic dampers (VED) under near-field earthquakes with directivity feature is investigated. After analyzing the structure using nonlinear time history analysis, it was observed that the directivity phenomenon leads to significant increase in the force applied to the structure, but the viscoelastic dampers showed an acceptable performance in both states of with and without directivity.