compressive visco-elastic damper as a seismic energy dissipater in diagonal bracing members

in this paper a new visco-elastic damper which called compressive rubber damper (crd) for seismic protection of structures is introduced. this device combines and enhances many of the proven characteristics of both displacement-dependent and velocity-dependent devices. the crd device consists of a block of a high-damping visco-elastic material bonded between two steel plates bent in a certain configuration to amplify the deformations in the device in order to obtain large compressive strains in the visco-elastic material. under low levels of vibrations, the device dissipates energy through amplified axial strains in the visco-elastic material only, however under moderate to strong levels of vibrations; a new source of energy dissipation is added through the yielding of the steel elements. in addition to the energy dissipation, the device provides stiffness through the steel elements as well as the visco-elastic material. finally a comparison between the results of the finite element software (abaqus) and simplified modelling of crd in sap2000 is provided.