Analytical assessment of the friction dampers behaviour under different loading rates

Abnormal loading, such as impact, can induce failure in the elements directly exposed to the hazard or even cause the progressive collapse of the building. Therefore, the structural robustness of buildings to such loading conditions should be checked. In this regard, connections play a fundamental role and, consequently, the knowledge of their resistance and ductility capacity in case of impact is of crucial importance. However, even though in the last years, research efforts have been devoted to this topic, many issues remain still unsolved and the use of complex finite-element models or complicated experimental tests is required to obtain the behaviour of connections. As a contribution towards the robustness assessment of structures, in this paper, the behaviour of friction dampers subjected to impact loads is evaluated. These friction dampers constitute the dissipative part of an innovative typology of friction joint, called Sliding Hinge Joint. Specifically, an analytical tool, easy to employ in practice, based on the component method of Eurocode 3 Part 1–8 and able to predict the behaviour of friction dampers up to failure when subject to different loading rates is presented. The effects of the loading rates on the resistance, stiffness and ductility of the friction damper were implemented in the behaviour of each individual component composing the device. The accuracy of the model is checked against experimental results and 3D FE simulations. The analytical procedure showed to be sufficiently accurate in describing the force-displacement response of friction dampers for both static and dynamic conditions.