EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF TWO TYPES OF VISCOELASTIC DAMPERS

Low cycle tests of A-type and B-type viscoelastic dampers are carried out with different energy dissipating characteristics, and shear storage module, shear loss module, loss factor and other parameters are compared under different strain amplitudes, under different loading frequencies and under fatigue loads. Experimental results show that the loss factor and equivalent damping ratio have little difference between two types of dampers. Besides, the A-type viscoelastic damper dissipates more energy per unit volume and has larger stiffness, but the temperature of the material increases obviously during the loading process which leads to a significant mechanical property attenuation under fatigue loading. Furthermore, B-type is less affected by heating effect of viscoelastic material and cumulative fatigue damage and has more stable mechanical performance and more excellent seismic fatigue property. Therefore, in practical structural engineering application, A-type viscoelastic damper is suitable for the structure with higher stiffness requirement and larger energy dissipation requirement, while the B-type is suitable for the structure with less stiffness requirement and more stable energy dissipation requirement. Besides, the simulated results using Bouc-Wen model are well consistent with the experimental results.