THREE-UNIT VISCOELASTIC DAMPER SYSTEM USING HIGH-HARDNESS RUBBER AND SIMPLIFIED EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE EVALUATION METHOD FOR HOUSES INCLUDING PROPOSED DAMPER SYSTEM

Abstract

A new vibration control system is proposed for residential houses. This system is a three-unit viscoelastic damper system which consists of two (upper and lower) rigid units and a damper unit including various rubber dampers supported by braces. The control system can absorb sufficient energy through the rubber damper. The ratio of the actual damper deformation to the interstory drift of the frame is introduced as a criterion to measure the damping performance and effectiveness of this system and it is shown that the proposed vibration control system has a high level of damping performance and effectiveness. A simplified earthquake response evaluation method is also proposed for the frame including the proposed control system. To verify the validity of the proposed vibration control system, a free-vibration experiment is conducted and some examples using the proposed simplified response evaluation method are presented.