Seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete frame with added viscoelastic dampers

This paper summarizes an experimental and analytical study on the seismic retrofit of a 1 3-scale reinforced concrete frame using viscoelastic dampers. After the frame had been damaged in the laboratory under simulated strong earthquake ground motions, two sets of viscoelastic dampers were designed and implemented to the structure, and the frame was subjected to further simulated seismic excitations. Test results show that viscoelastic dampers are very effective in reducing the seismic response of reinforced concrete structures. In addition, the equivalent structural damping ratio can easily be predicted by the modal strain energy method with some modification. Therefore, seismic design of reinforced concrete structures with added viscoelastic dampers can be carried out similarly to conventional structural design procedures.