Dear Colleagues,
I want to use a damper in order to reduce the effects of earthquake, blast or wind forces on the timber structures. However, I wish to use the most suitable damper in this regard. On the other hand, timber structures are usually susceptible to damage at their connections during strong forces. What kind of damper is the best choice and also what are the effects of using this damper on such connections?
Why you have to use a damper for a timber structure? Timber itself is a nice damping material.
Dear Levent Koca ,
As I have mentioned in my question, I want to apply dynamic loads to timber structures such as extreme earthquake or wind. Moreover, the biggest problem in timber structures is about connections. So, use of an appropriate damper will be useful and somehow necessary to mitigate the effects of dynamic loads on timber structures. Moreover, there is a great deal of information about using Tuned Mass Damper in these structures having been presented by many researchers in this field.
I would prefer to distribute energy to whole structure equally by changing rigidities at connections, rather than to use dampers. You should not have concentared loads with a correct structural design. It is not easy to fail a timber structure by earthquake, :).
Dear Levent Koca ,
Thank you for your answer. I absolutely try to distribute energy to whole structure. As I have mentioned before, in addition to use of earthquake and wind extreme loads I will apply blast loads. So, I have decided to use damper in order to mitigate the effects of blast loading on the connections of timber structures. In blast loading, viscous dampers can be used. Anyway, I appreciate you.
Engineers should avoid usage of dampers in structures, if the structure is not sycronised with damper, if both does not react as a single body. especially capacity of mechanical dampers (like shock transmission units, STU) are limited and they will not work in long term. Simply do not trust to a small device, to safe your structure. Pendular dampers working with gravity princible works whole the time and more safe, viscous not. But best is; to design the structure with a balanced energy distribution, without dampers if possible. dampers may be used in vibrated structures and in structures with dynamic loads, like bridges but not buildings. Fatigue effect (life time) is the main problem of such structures, rather than earthquake.
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