Volume 6, Issue 7, July – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

Seismic Dampers and the Factors Affecting its Efficacy

A Review Paper
Aniket D. Patil Ashish Kumar
Prof. Dept. of Civil Engineering, Dept. of Civil Engineering,
MIT School of Engineering, MIT ADT University, Pune, MIT School of Engineering, MIT ADT University, Pune,
Maharashtra, India Maharashtra, India

Raunak Joshi Abhishek Arge

Dept. of Civil Engineering, Dept. of Civil Engineering,
MIT School of Engineering, MIT ADT University, Pune, MIT School of Engineering, MIT ADT University,
Maharashtra, India Pune, Maharashtra, India

Abstract:- Seismic damping technology has been used for Dynamic Analysis Methods are used to analyze the
years in order to protect structures from adverse effects of efficacy of dampers. There are two types of dynamic analysis
earthquake. Thus, it is important to study seismic methods - Response Spectrum Analysis and Time History
damping technologies in order to use them effectively. The Method. A unique sort of mode superposition is used in the
purpose of this paper is to broadly classify the dampers response spectrum approach. The goal is to offer an input that
currently in popular use, and explain their functioning. specifies a limit on how much an eigen mode with a given
Friction Dampers, Viscous Dampers, Visco-Elastic natural frequency and damping can be aroused by a given
Dampers and Tuned Mass Dampers are the majorly used event. The structural reaction to short, nondeterministic,
dampers in the market nowadays. Viscous Dampers are transient dynamic events is estimated using response spectrum
considered the most efficient type of dampers. The analysis. The response of a structure under historical
efficiencies of various dampers also differ from each other earthquake or wind acceleration data is studied using time-
and thus can be used at various places based on history analysis. The structure does not have to be an SDoF
requirements. On further studies, it was found that the system. A plot of amplitude or acceleration vs. time is known
efficiencies of dampers not only depend on their type but as a time-history. The structural reaction is computed at a
also on their location and orientation. Dynamic analysis is number of consecutive time instants in time history analyses.
used for the assessment of effects of dampers on When placing the dampers in a building, it must not be done in
structures. There are two types of Dynamic Analysis a random fashion.The efficacy of damper does not only depend
methods – Response Spectrum Analysis and Time History on its type but also its location and orientation.
Analysis.
II. TYPES OF DAMPERS
Keywords:- Seismic Damper; Location; Orientation; Time
History Analysis; Response Spectrum Analysis. A. Types of Dampers
The major types of dampers available in the market
I. INTRODUCTION are asfollows -
a. Friction Dampers
Traditionally reinforced concrete structures were made b. Tuned Mass Dampers
earthquake resistant by designing the frame for a predicted c. Viscous Dampers
magnitude of earthquake. However, the frame elements d. Visco-Elastic Dampers
designed using the traditional method were not feasible due to
the uneconomical large sizes of frame elements. Thus B. Friction Dampers
traditional seismic design methods were eventually replaced by It is one of the most effective, easily available and
energy dissipation devices like dampers and base isolators. inexpensive types of dampers present in the market. The
Seismic dampers are the most commonly used energy seismic energy created by ground motion is converted into
dissipation devices. There are multiple types of seismic friction caused between the two surfaces sliding over each
dampers available in the market - Viscous Damper, Visco- other. According to the authors Chandnani, Joshi and Trivedi; a
Elastic Dampers, Friction Dampers, Tuned Mass Dampers, larger amount of seismic energy can be dissipated when using
etc. It is imperative to understand the classification of dampers friction dampers as compared to viscous dampers or yielding
in order to decide their appropriate utility in any structural dampers[2]. Author Heysami states that the performance of a
setup. friction damper is not affected by parameters like temperature
and velocity[1]. It has very low maintenance and thus is a very
popular kind of damper.

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Volume 6, Issue 7, July – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165

Figure 1: Friction Damper Figure 3: Viscous Damper

Visco-elastic Damper
Visco-elastic dampers dissipate energy by expanding an
C. Tuned Mass Damper elastomer in combination with metallic plates. The energy
It is an energy dissipating system, consisting of an acting on the body is absorbed by utilising the controlled
arrangement of mass and spring, which works on the principle shearing of solids. They are generally used in structures made
of harmonic motion. By the help of the tuned mass damper, of steel. Authors Bhatti and Varum state that visco-elastic
the oscillating frequency of the mass attached is tuned to dampers are easily installable and require low maintenance[4].
match the frequency by which the structure oscillates. This They are very effective against seismic and wind loads.
helps to reduce structural failure. Tuned mass dampers can be
broadly classified into 2 types based on control mechanism: Figure 4: Viscoelastic Damper
Active and Passive. In an Active Mass Damper, an external
source is used to alter the forces in a predetermined manner in
order to match the resonating frequency of the structure[6]. On
the contrary, the Passive Mass Damper does not use this
external power source and imparts forces that are generated
because of the motion of the structure. Shanghai Tower, CN
Tower and Statue of Unity are a few examples of skyscrapers
that use TMD.

Figure 2: Tuned Mass Damper

III. TIME HISTORY METHOD AND RESPONSE

SPECTRUM ANALYSIS

Varying earthquakes have different intensities and

magnitudes in different locations, and the destruction caused in
all these locations are also different. As a result, it is critical to
investigate the seismic behaviour of RC structures for various
functions such as base shear, storey displacement, and so on.
D. Viscous Damper
Viscous damper is used to dissipate energy in a Seismic analysis is required to calculate the building's
building’s lateral system. It dissipates the energy by forcing a seismic reaction; seismic analysis is an important aspect of the
liquid through a small opening or orifice, which in turn creates structural design process in areas where earthquakes are
a damping pressure that generates a force which results in common.
considerable reduction in seismic energy or force. Accordingto
author Darshane, the working methodology of a viscous is A. Time History Method (THM)
comparable to that of a car's shock absorber, but at a This method calculates the response of a structure that
considerably higher force level[3]. They are inexpensive and has been subjected to earthquake stimulation in real time
can be easily installed to a new or an existing structure. (hence the name Time History). Various seismic data, such as
acceleration, velocity, displacement data, and so on, are
required for seismic analysis and can be easily obtained from
seismograph data analysis for every given earthquake. It's a
crucial technique for structural seismic analysis, especially
when the structural response being assessed is nonlinear.

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Volume 6, Issue 7, July – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
B. Response Spectrum Analysis (RSA) Because the response spectrum approach cannot account
Time history analysis is the source of this method. A for the time fluctuation of base shear and deflection, it is
designer is not often concerned with the structure's response at difficult to anticipate the location and manner of failure under
all times; maximal response is sufficient information for dynamic load using response spectrum.
designing a sufficiently robust structure. For certain ground
acceleration, a graph between maximum spectral acceleration IV. DAMPER EFFICIENCY
and various time periods of structure is generated in this
method, but the structure's response at each point in time is Authors Lu, Ding, Weng, Kasai and Wada conducted an
not determined. The linear dynamic analysis approach is experiment to see the changes on response of a 8-story RC
called the response spectrum method. In this procedure, only Frame Building when different dampers namely viscous
the maximum values of displacements and member forces in damper (VD), steel damper (SD) and viscoelastic damper
each mode of vibration are calculated. Smooth design spectra, (VED) were used[5]. They accounted various intensities of
which represent the average of numerous earthquake motions, earthquakes when testing the various dampers for inter-story
are used in this procedure. Different earthquakes will have drift. When compared to a frame where no damper is used, all
different response spectra, but IS 1893:2002 has provided a the dampers show a significant reduction in story drift across
general purpose reaction spectra that was produced by all intensities of earthquake. It can be inferred that when there
examining a few large earthquakes in the past for the is a minor earthquake, viscoelastic damper proves to be the
convenience of structural engineers.[10] more efficient than steel damper and viscous damper. In case
of a moderate earthquake, viscous damper has the least inter
C. Comparison between THM and RSA storey drift and thus is the most efficient damper in this case.
The top displacement provided by time history analysis In case of areas with major earthquakes, both viscous dampers
is on average 10% to 15% smaller than the displacement and viscoelastic dampers reduce the story drift considerably. It
provided by response spectrum analysis. In base shear, a can also be observed that steel dampers are less efficient in
similar trend emerges: response spectrum yields a 15 percent damping the structure as compared to the other dampers
to 20% greater base shear value on average than time history. irrespective of the intensity of the earthquake in the zone.
This overestimation of base shear in the response spectrum
would result in larger stresses in structural components,
making design based on such an analysis uneconomical
because large dimension members are required to resist large
displacements and stresses. The difference in the results of the
response spectrum approach is large at higher storeys (above
the 5th floor), hence the time history method should be used
for high- rise structures. Because the response spectrum and
time history methods produce nearly identical results for
smaller buildings, the response spectrum method should be
preferred. The time history method is time consuming due to
the input it requires (earthquake excitation), and the results
interpretation is not straightforward. Because the time history
method provides a more accurate and close-to-perfect
visualisation of a structure's behaviour during an earthquake,
sensitive structures such as long bridges, nuclear power plants,
or any hazardous industrial building should be designed using
the time history method, which incorporates a large number of Graph 1: Seismic response of various dampers[5]
historically devastating earthquake data. The time history
method is superior to the reaction spectrum approach, and it Authors Landge and Joshi conducted an experiment to
should be used whenever extensive analysis is required. check the efficacy of various dampers which are as follows:
However, the response spectrum method is not a terrible viscous dampers (VD), viscoelastic dampers (VED), friction
approximation; it delivers pretty accurate findings and damper (FD) and tuned mass damper (TMD)[9]. They checked
overestimates on the conservative side for low-rise the response of the structure on various parameters like
displacement, acceleration, story drift and story shear on a 8
buildings.[10] storey building. When comparison of the various types of
dampers was done on basis of displacement, it was observed
In Unsymmetrical structure, the above-mentioned trend that all kinds of dampers were able to successfully reduce the
is more pronounced. Because the results of time history displacements of the structure across all stories. Viscous
approaches are strongly reliant on earthquake excitation, a damper was the most efficient kind of damper across all
number of different earthquakes of differing intensities should stories. It was observed that tuned mass damper was the least
be collected and the best of these should be evaluated. effective kind of damper among all other dampers. They are
generally used in high rise buildings and that might not be that
Time history provides the time distribution of base shear effective when used in smaller structures. As the acceleration
and displacement, which may be utilised to predict the failure in a building increases, the response of the building increases
mode of a structure. These data can be extremely beneficial and thus damping needs to be increased. When various
when constructing sensitive and significant structures.

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Volume 6, Issue 7, July – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
dampers were used in the structure, it is seen that viscous
damper was the most efficient kind of damper on storey
1,2,5,6,7 and 8. On storey 3 and 4, viscoelastic dampers were
most efficient in damping. It is also observed that as the
number of story in a structure increases, the acceleration on
the particular storey increases. When the storey drift was
accounted for, it was observed that peak story drift was
reached on storey 3 and it gradually decreased on the
successive storeys. Viscous dampers and vicoelastic dampers
prove to be the most efficient kind of dampers to reduce the
storey drift followed by friction damper and tuned mass Graph 5: Storey Shear graph using various dampers[9]
damper. Storey shear plays a vital role in deforming a
structure. More the storey shear, more the damage done to the From the above experiments it can be seen that various
structure, thus it is important to minimize the storey shear kind of dampers can be used to maintain structural integrity
acting on a building. Upon checking the structure for storey against earthquakes. From both the papers it can be inferred
shear it was observed that viscous dampers were were the that for a medium rise structure, viscous damper and
most effective kind of dampers to reduce storey shear. Out of viscoelastic damper prove to be an ideal choice of damper.
all the dampers applied, friction dampers had the maximum
storey shear. It was also observed that storey shear has it’s V. POSITION AND ORIENTATION OF DAMPER
highest magnitude at the first story and decreased in the
consecutive storeys. The authors Tovar and Lopez carried out an experiment
where they tested the effect of number and placement of
dampers on the response of the building[7]. They laid out
several cases of varying number and position of dampers as
shown in the figure. It was observed that the damper
placement significantly affects the overall response of the
structure. It was also observed that increasing the number of
dampers increases the damping. However, it was noted that
increasing the number of dampers and placing them randomly
will not always yield a better result. Furthermore, authors
Tovar and Lopez suggest that the dampers should be placed
closer to the base of the building in order to reduce storey drift.

Graph 2: Displacement graph using various dampers[9]

Figure 5: Use of single damper on a storey[7]

Figure 6: Use of 3 dampers on a frame[7]

Graph 3: Acceleration graph using various dampers[9]

Figure 7: Use of 5 dampers on a frame[7]

Graph 4: Storey Drift graph using various dampers[9]

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Volume 6, Issue 7, July – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
The author Julius Marko conducted a series of engineering, Lisbon 2012.
experiments on a high rise structure, a 18 storey structure and [5]. X.L.Lu, K.Ding, D.G.Weng, K.Kasai, A.Wada,
a 12 storey structure to determine the building response in “Comparative study on seismic behaviour of RC frame
different conditions[8]. The author concludes that various kind using viscous dampers, steel dampers and viscoelastic
of dampers can be used to control the response of a building. dampers,” 15th world conference on earthquake
The author also concludes that viscoelastic dampers work engineering, Lisbon 2012.
best when placed at lower storeys. Friction dampers can be [6]. Vajreshwari Umachagi, Katta Venkataramma,
used in regions where maximum storey drift is expected. The G.R.Reddy, Rajeev Verma, “Applications of dampers for
author also suggests that for medium and high rise structures, vibration control of sructures,” International Journal of
passive dampers are an ideal choice of damper. The author Research in Engineering and Technology, pISSN: 2321-
suggests that friction dampers have the ability to reduce the 7308, November 2013.
initial strong strikes whereas viscoelastic dampers decrease [7]. Carolina Tovar, Oscar A. Lopez, “Effect of the position
the response of the structure at a slower rate. Thus, to prevent and number of dampers on the seismic response of frame
the structure from the initial strikes of the earthquake, friction
structures,” 13th World Conference on Earthquake
dampers are an ideal selection. Engineering, paper no. 1044, August 2004.
[8]. Julius Marko, “Influence of damping systems on building
Thus the above experiments conclusively state that the structures subject to seismic effects,” unpublished.
number, position and orientation of damper highly influence
[9]. M.S. Landge, Prof. P.K. Joshi, “Comparative study of
the seismic response of a structure.
various types of dampers used for multi-story R.C.C.
Building,” International Journal for Research in Applied
VI. CONCLUSION Science and Engineering, vol.5 Issue 4, April 2017.
[10]. Prakriti Chandrakar, Dr.P.S. Bokare, “Earthquake
 Dampers highly influence the response of a building and it analysis of G+10 building using response spectrum
should be used in areas of high seismic activity. method and time history method - a comparison,”
 Dampers work best when placed at lower storeys.
International Journal of Science and Research, volume 6
 For a medium rise structure, viscous damper and
Issue 8 ISSN: 2319-7064, August 2017.
viscoelastic dampers should be used.
[11]. http://dspace.hmlibrary.ac.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456
 Friction dampers work best when placed at regions with 789/1229/21/2 0_Chapter%2015.pdf
high inter storey drift.
 The number, position and orientation of the damper highly
influence the structural response of the building and thus
should be placed carefully.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I am thankful to my respondents; whose cooperation

played a major role in making this research possible. Not to
forget, I am also thankful to my colleagues and every other
person who has directly or indirectly helped me during the
preparation of the report. I am extremely thankful to all the
authors whose papers have helped me gain knowledge and
trigger ideas about the subject matter.

REFERENCES

[1]. Alireza Heysami, “Types of dampers and their seismic

performance during an earthquake,” Current World
Environment, vol. 10(Special Issue 1), April 2015.
[2]. Dharmesh Chandani, Riddhi Joshi, Kumarpal Trivedi,
“Characteristics and applications of different types of
dampers as seismic energy dissipater:”, International
Journal of Computer Science and Network, vol. 5, April
2016.
[3]. Jayesh Darshane, “Study of various types of dampers
used for civilstructures,” International Journal for
Scientific Research and Development, vol. 5, Issue 05,
May 2017.
[4]. A.Q. Bhatti, H. Varun, “Comparison between the
viscoelastic dampers and magnetorheological dampers
and study the effect of temperature on the damping
properties,” 15th world conference on earthquake

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