A newly developed vertical steel pipe damper is introduced to improve the seismic performance of steel moment frames. The damper exhibits large lateral stiffness and excellent capability to dissipate energy
due to earthquakes. It provides a reliable, compact, inexpensive, and replaceable damper. Improved performance of the structure is verified analitically using a four-story steel moment frame equipped with steel pipe
dampers. Vertical steel pipe dampers are placed between any two points where large relative motion exists during earthquake excitation. A nonlinear dynamic analysis of the structure using PERFORM-3D software
demonstrated the significant benefit of equipping the structure with steel pipe dampers. All structural components, except the steel pipe dampers, remain elastic during earthquake excitation. Structures properly designed with vertical steel pipe dampers will only require minimum postearthquake inspection and limited
damage.
Some practical issues associated with the application of
vertical steel pipe dampers to building structure for
seismic response reduction are presented in this paper.