%0 Journal Article
%T Strain Distribution Measurement of a Shear Panel Damper Developed for Bridge Structure
%A Y. Liu
%A T. Aoki
%A M. Shimoda
%J Journal of Structures
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/615275
%X A shear panel damper using low-yield steel is considered as one of cost-effective solutions to reduce earthquake damage to building structure. In this paper, we describe the development of a shear panel damper with high deformation capacity, which is a necessary condition for it to be a bridge bearing. The development is based on the measurement of strain distribution of the shear panels under cyclic loading test. For the measurement, an image processing technique is proposed to use with the two-dimensional finite element method, in which a constant stress triangular element is employed. The accuracy of the measurement is validated by comparing with the results acquired by strain gauges. Various shapes of shear panels are tested in the experiment to obtain the relationship between the strain distribution and the deformation capacity. Based on the results of the experiment, the shear panel damper is improved to achieve high seismic performance with large deformation capacity. 1. Introduction Shear panel dampers (SPDs) made of low-yield steel have been widely studied and applied to high-rise buildings as hysteretic dampers globally. When shear panel dampers are installed into building structures, they are expected to partially divert the input seismic energy into the dampers and reduce the seismic response of the structures under strong earthquake loads effectively and economically and to improve the energy dissipation capacity of the buildings [1¨C3]. The researches regarding bridge structures are presently insufficient [4]. Recently, an application of SPD bearing is proposed for function separated bridge bearings system [5, 6], in which two separate bearings are designed according to each separated functional requirement. The SPD serves as a hysteretic damper and a lateral resistant bearing for seismic loads. A sliding bearing supports the vertical force including dead and live loads. This separate bearings system is expected to overcome the disadvantage of high cost and low energy dissipation capacity of laminated rubber bearing, which is installed in bridge structures generally. However, the bearings will undergo a large range of shear deformation when large relative displacement between the substructure and the bridge pier occurs in a strong earthquake. Therefore, to be a type of hysteretic damper for bridge bearing, it is strongly required to sustain high deformation capacity and repetition durability for low cycle fatigue under cyclic seismic loading. In recent years, we have focused on developing high seismic performance shear panel damper made of
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jstruc/2013/615275/