The Effects of Damper Location on the Retrofit of Steel Buildings Under Blast Loading

Thin-walled tubes might be considered as the simplest and, probably the oldest, type of dampers used in energy-absorbing systems. This paper investigates the effect of thin-walled accordion metal dampers and their arrangement in the frame on the behavior of steel frames against blast loading. For this purpose, one-bay frames with either one or four stories, and in both cases of with and without dampers, have been analyzed in ABAQUS software under two different blast intensity conditions. Results demonstrate that using such dampers would improve frame displacement to a large extend (up to 98% for one-story frame and 64% for four story frame), especially during an intensive blast. Furthermore, local Plastic deformations of the frame would be reduced by locating the dampers in points with large deformations.