An adaptive viscous damping wall for seismic protection: Experimental study and performance-based design

Abstract In this paper, a novel adaptive viscous damping wall (A-VDW) system was developed to achieve a two-stage seismic mitigation. The A-VDW combines a viscous damping wall with lead dampers through working gaps. The A-VDW provides only damping but no extra stiffness for moderate or minor earthquakes, while for severe earthquakes, both stiffness and energy dissipation are provided. A numerical model which captures the displacement—force relation features at different working stages was proposed for the A-VDW; then, dynamic tests on a scaled A-VDW under different loading frequencies and amplitudes were conducted to verify the proposed physical configuration and numerical model. The two-stage seismic mitigation effect of the proposed A-VDW is evaluated in single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) systems. Finally, a performance-based design method considering velocity exponent was proposed and also validated.