The Effect of Connection Conditions on the Cyclic Behavior of U-shaped Metallic-yielding Dampers

The metallic dampers are one of the most widely used energy dissipation devices that can be used in building and non-building structures such as bridges. U-shaped metallic strips are among these tools. The effects of some parameters such as the number and arrangement of connection bolts on the cyclic behavior and energy dissipation capability during earthquake events will be evaluated in this study using nonlinear finite element method. According to the numerical results, elimination of the bolts in the FEM modeling has not significant effects for the longitudinal cyclic loading, but causes incorrect results for the transverse cyclic loading. Also, in the latter case, contrary to the former one, the number of connecting bolts is a significant parameter affecting the cyclic behavior of the damper. In this loading condition, it is observed that an increase of the number of bolts can increase the stiffness and strength of the U-shaped damper.