The Dissipative Column: A New Hysteretic Damper

A new replaceable hysteretic damper to better control seismic building damage, consisting of two or more adjacent steel vertical elements connected to each other with continuous mild/low strength steel shear links, is proposed and investigated in this paper. New Dampers, called Dissipative Columns (DC), continuously linked with X-shaped steel plates, provide additional stiffness and damping to a lateral system by using a basic and minimally invasive construction element: the column. Working in a way similar to coupled shear walls, the proposed element behavior is theoretically analyzed at linear and non-linear ranges. In fact, considering different restrained cases, a parametric analysis is developed in order both to evaluate the effect of the main geometrical and structural parameters and to provide the design capacity curves of this new damper. The DC can be considered a new damping device, easy to install in new as well as existing buildings in order to protect them from seismic damage.