July 2013

Viscous Dampers Save Steel Structures from Earthquake Damage

By
David Lee, Ph.D. West Coast Technical Director Taylor Devices, In.

And
Douglas P. Taylor President Taylor Devices, Inc.

David Lee, Ph.D. West Coast Technical Director Taylor Devices, In.

____________________________________________________________________________ (A copy of this report can be downloaded for personal use from www.steeltips.org)

Viscous Dampers Save Structures from Earthquake Damage

By: David Lee, Ph.D. and Douglas P. Taylor

Structures from Earthquakes

Viscous dampers now protect over 450 structures throughout the world from earthquakes. These dampers cut drift in half, greatly reduce shear forces, and make structures safe for their contents by reducing shaking to only 25 or 30% of what happens in unprotected structures. Structural Engineers can now design structures with immediate occupancy after a major event, at no additional cost over basic code design. The dampers decrease loads enough to significantly reduce the amount of steel and concrete, enough to offset the cost of the dampers. The added protection is essentially free. Refurbishment of existing structures with dampers is often the least costly way to provide seismic protection. Taylor Devices can lower insurance premiums significantly, and greatly lessen the probability of lost income. Viscous dampers have been used on well over 450 structures. A list is included in this paper as an Appendix. Some sample projects are described in this report, along with the story of how all this happened.

First Printing, July 2013. __________________________________________________________________________________

Douglas P. Taylor, President. Taylor Devices, Inc.. 90 Taylor Drive,. North Tonawanda, NY 14120. 716-694-0800 taylordevi@aol.com Web Site www.taylordevices.com

______________________________________________________________________________ ______________ David Lee, Ph.D., West Coast Technical Director, Taylor Devices, Inc, 2112 Wilshire Boulevard #604, SantainMonica, CA 90403, davidlee9@aol.com Disclaimer: The information presented this publication has been 310-396-5459, prepared in accordance with recognized engineering
principles and is for general information only. While it is believed to be accurate, this information should not be used or relied upon for any specific application without competent professional examination and verification of its accuracy, suitability, and applicability by a licensed professional engineer, designer or architect. The publication of the material contained herein is not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of the Structural Steel Educational Council or of any other person named herein, that this information is suitable for any general or particular use or of freedom from ______________________________________________________________________________ infringement of any patent or patents. Anyone making use of this information assumes all liability arising from such use. ______________ Caution must be exercised when relying upon specifications and codes developed by others and incorporated by reference This report is Copyright above author(s). reserved. herein since such material mayof be the modified or amended from All time rights to time subsequent to the printing of this document. The Structural Steel Educational Council or the authors bear no responsibility for such material other than to refer to it and ______________________________________________________________________________ incorporate it by reference at the time of the initial publication of this document. ______________

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The publication of this report was made possible in part by the support of the Structural Steel Educational Council (SSEC). The authors wish to thank Michael Constantinou, Ph.D. of the State University of New York, Buffalo Campus, for all his help in making structural dampers a reality. We also wish to thank all the good people of Taylor Devices, Inc. for their past and continuing work in developing new and better viscous dampers, and for keeping up with the steadily increasing demand.

Viscous Dampers Save Structures from Earthquake Damage

By: David Lee, Ph.D., West Coast Technical Director, Taylor Devices, Inc. Douglas P. Taylor, President, Taylor Devices, Inc. __________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT / Page 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / Page 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS / Page 3 INTRODUCTION/ Page 4 CHAPTER 1. BUILDINGS/ PAGE 4 CHAPTER 2. BRIDGES/ PAGE 9 CHAPTER 3. OTHER PROJECTS/ PAGE 12 CHAPTER 4. THE HISTORY OF VISCOUS DAMPERS IN STRUCTURES/ PAGE 13 REFERENCES / Page 18 ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S) / Page 19 LIST OF PUBLISHED STEEL TIPS REPORTS / Page 20

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1. Introduction
The addition of viscous dampers to an existing structure can provide significantly improved seismic performance. Seismic shaking of two to four times code maximum will cause cosmetic damage only, permitting immediate occupancy after an event. Both analysis and tests referenced in this report show these results. Incorporation of viscous dampers in a new structure provides similar levels of protectionthe ability to withstand two to four times maximum expected shaking with only cosmetic damage. There is another benefit as wellit is possible with correct design to reduce the amount of steel in the structure enough to offset the cost of the dampers. The owner gets a building that is highly resistant to earthquakes at no additional costpossibly even a cost savings. Viscous dampers soak up the earthquake energy so the steel in the structure no longer needs to bend back and forth and yield, or at least not nearly as much. The beams and columns no longer need to yield and heat up, like a paper clip that is bent back and forth repeatedly as it absorbs energy. A building without dampers is like a car with bad shocksit bounces around a lot in an earthquake. The viscous dampers smooth out the ride. Viscous dampers have been used on well over 450 structures. A list is included here as a link(http://taylordevices.com/pdf/StructuralChart2010.pdf) Here is another link that leads to almost 100 technical papers showing various applications, analyses and tests of viscous dampers for structures. (http://taylordevices.com/literature.html) Some sample projects are described in this report. Chapter 1 Buildings that use Viscous Dampers Colorado Center in Santa Monica, California
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The Colorado Center has six steel frame buildings, built in the 80s and 90s. All six of these three to six story buildings have been refurbished with dampers to make them earthquake resistant per todays requirements. Both the buildings and the occupants are now protected.

James and Ken Lord of Lord Ficks Zayed and Associates, the structural engineers on this project, did a fine job in designing the earthquake strengthening of this building. They had to install dampers in a number of difficult locations. Here are some of them:

In the loading dock

In the Dry Cleaning Shop

In the Fitness Center

Our thanks to Barrett Stone (senior property manager) and Alan Gaskell (chief engineer) for all their help with this project. Arrowhead Regional Medical Center Formerly the San Bernardino Hospital, the new Arrowhead Regional Medical Center is in Colton, California near the intersection of three major faults. Five separate buildings, all on elastomeric base isolators. The predicted seismic induced displacement of +/- four feet was too much at that time not only for the isolators, but also for the movable walkways between buildings and the utilities that feed the buildings. Our dampers reduced this motion to a little under +/- two feet, which was acceptable.

These dampers were the largest that we had made at that time320 kips. Now our limit is around 2000 kips, and the limitation is the size of high alloy steel tubing that can be extruded. If we could get bigger tubes we could make even larger dampers. Heres what the installation looks like:

Doug Taylor, president of Taylor Devices, is very proud of our performance on this project. His foot points to the first prototype unit that we made. It passed all qualification and life cycle tests required by both the owner and OSHPD. Later it was delivered to the job site and put on display outside one of the buildings. You can tour the installation if you wish.

Chapter 2 Two Bridges that use viscous dampers The Millennium pedestrian bridge across the Thames in London is possibly the most beautiful pedestrian bridge in the world. It is a suspension bridge, and the suspension cables are highly angled instead of vertical. The bridge
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had to be closed two days after opening. It shook so badly that people were falling down.

The bridge designers acted quickly and efficiently to find a way to correct this problem. After a lot of consideration they decided to add viscous dampers to eliminate the shaking. The dampers block the vibration but still permit thermally induced deformations. They work perfectlyvibration was reduced by a factor of 40/1. The dampers that we supplied are very special. They dont have our standard lip type seals, but instead use a labyrinth seal with no friction and no rubbing surfaces. Metal bellows contain the fluid, so there is infinite life and essentially zero friction, which is perfect for this bridge. Some of the Taylor seismic dampers are immense. The Sutong Bridge in China has some of the biggest dampers that we have ever made. It is the longest cable stay bridge in the world.
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The Sutong Bridge dampers, besides being huge, are special in another way. They have elastomer springs at each end of travel, to provide extra seismic protection. This feature can be added to any of our dampers. The spring can also be continuous, so it acts throughout the stroke. Our spring dampers can add stiffness to a structure as well as viscous damping.
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Chapter 3 Some Very Special Dampers Boat Seat Shock Absorber The boats that transport the Navy Seals are very fast, and very rough. So rough that the Seals cant take it for more than eight hours at a time, and sometimes get injured. We designed a shock absorbing seat that makes the ride as smooth as a luxury sedan.

The Negative Spring Not content with the successful application of structural damping, and inventing a bunch of other amazing things, Dr. Constantinou recently created a new way to mitigate earthquakesthe negative spring. Taylor Devices designed the mechanism to do this. A conventional spring pushes back. The more it deflects, the harder it pushes back to its neutral position. A negative spring does the reversethe more it moves away from neutral, the more it pushes itself away from its center point. By itself a negative spring is very unstable, something like a cocked mousetrap. Add it to a structure and the period gets longer, moving the base resonance away from the earthquake frequency. Heres a picture of some of the testing of this remarkable concept:
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Chapter 4 The History of Viscous Dampers in Structures How it all happened Viscous dampers now protect over 450 structures throughout the world from earthquakes. These dampers cut drift in half, greatly reduce shear forces, and make structures safe for their contents by reducing shaking to only 25 or 30% of what happens in unprotected structures. 20 years ago no one had heard of viscous dampers for structures. Now they are a standard way to protect structures. How did this happen? We owe it all to the MX missile, that huge nuclear deterrent of the 1970s and 1980s that carried multiple warheads. Authorized by President Carter in 1972 and cancelled years later by President Reagan as sort of a mercy killing, due to the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. During its life a number of very freaky basing modes were seriously evaluated. One was known as Deep Base MX.
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First find a huge mesa with a large flat top and hollow it out. Then fill the interior caves with MX missiles & support equipment, plus huge tunneling machines. Now wait for Armageddon. After a nuclear attack the tunneling machines bore out 15 degree inclined exit tunnels, clearing the way to the outside walls of the mesa. Then drive huge transporter erector missiles through the tunnels to the outside, tilt the MX missiles to vertical, and fire away. Heres a picture:

Naturally all the equipment inside the mesa had to be protected from nuclear blast. So the Air Force gave us a small contract for a preliminary design of a number of shock isolation systems. The State of New York at that time had a grant program for any company doing SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research). All we needed to get their $25,000 gift was a one page description of how we would use the money. We used it to develop seismic dampers. Our first step was to find a University to work with us. CalTech was not interested because they did not work with the nuts and bolts of seismic protection. Cal Berkeley was overloaded with other work. But Dr. Michael Constantinou, a newcomer to State University of New York Buffalo Campus was happy to work with us. He was doing research at that time on added damping for seismic protection. He found that damping greatly increased
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earthquake resistance. But the visco-elastic dampers he had been using stiffened up at the velocities encountered in many earthquakes. The Taylor dampers were good at high speeds- even the 30 ft/sec ground shaking speeds associated with nuclear weapons detonations. This allowed much higher damping ratios to be used. Dr. Constantinous first experiments using our dampers were with 25% damping- with dramatic improvement over earlier approaches. In most cases, the simple addition of dampers "borrowed" from the US nuclear missile programs offered a reduction of seismic loads within a steel building structure of a factor of nearly three- with no changes needed to the structure itself. Heres an early test:

The tests showed that Dr. Constantinous predictions were correct; dampers reduced drift by 50% or more, and reduced inter-story shear by about the same amount. We then received an even larger contract for detail design of the Deep Base isolators, which we completed. Then the program was dropped. Something
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to do with cost, and the fact that every tunneling machine in the world would still not be near enough. An even wilder MX basing scheme was the Carter plan, which had 400 missiles scattered amongst 4000 identical launch buildings that were connected by roads. The missiles could be shuffled from one launch building to another so no one could tell which ones were which. This confused the enemy. There were too many potential missile sites to attack all at once. Later, under Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger, the number of sites was greatly reduced, and they were all located in a small area. This was called Dense Pack. The idea here was to have such massive retaliatory power that no one would dare attack us. If they did attack, the nuclear blasts from that many warheads would cause fratricidethey would detonate each other relatively harmlessly. Fortunately this was never tested. It was not one of our brightest defense plans. Around that time we did a lot of work on nuclear blast protection for missiles. We designed and built and tested( without nuclear explosions, of course) full size prototype dampers for Mobile Minuteman ( Minuteman IV, fore-runner to MX), as well as the Dense Pack and Multiple Protective Shelter systems. At the same time we were in full scale production of dampers for US Navy ship based nuclear missiles- with more than 23,000 dampers manufactured for the Navy during the Cold War years. The Dense Pack shock absorbers were our greatest challenge. These dampers had a piston rod that was more than 20 feet long. This was what we needed to protect the missiles against nuclear blast. We had very limited space, as both the silos and the launch buildings had already been designed. We had a huge ground shock input, and only limited rattle space. It took everything we had to come up with an isolation system. Heres what we came up with for the earlier Carter system. These dampers had 4 feet of stroke, and were the basis for the dampers that we built for the San Bernardino Medical Center, which was described earlier.
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These were very big dampers, especially at that time. But, by coincidence, just about right for huge buildings and bridges. So when the need developed to protect structures from earthquakes, we were ready. In fact, designing dampers for earthquake protection of structures was much easier that designing dampers for nuclear blast. We have now installed Taylor Dampers on over 450 projects. References Here is a link that leads to over 100 technical papers showing various applications, analyses and tests of viscous dampers for structures. http://taylordevices.com/literature.html

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About the Authors:

David Lee, Ph.D. is West Coast Technical Director for Taylor Devices, Inc. He has invented a number of novel viscous damper configurations, and has published 12 technical papers in this field. He manages the West Coast technical operations and marketing for Taylor Devices. Douglas P. Taylor is president of Taylor Devices Inc., located in North Tonawanda, NY. He has held this position since 1991. He has been with Taylor Devices since 1965. At the end of the Cold War in 1990 Mr. Taylor conceived and developed the concept of using large damping devices from U.S. Ballistic Missile Programs for earthquake protection of buildings and bridges. This technology transfer to the private sector has proven highly successful, and Mr. Taylor's contributions in this area have been acknowledged as significant by the U.S. Department of Defense. Doug Taylor has over 30 patents relating to viscous dampers, has published over 55 technical papers, and has won many awards.

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List of Published Steel TIPS Reports

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------July '13: The Manufacture and Supply of Structural Steel by Max D. Powell July '11: Steel Plate Shear Walls-Performance Based Design by Nabih Youssef, Ryan Wilkerson and Daniel Tunick July '11: Welding of Seismically-Resistant Steel Structures by Duane K. Miller April '11: Notes on Gusset Plates in Steel Trusses-Evaluation, Repair and Retrofit by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asi and Wahid Tadros March '11: The Design of Continuity Plate Welds in Special Moment Frames by Chia-Ming Uang, Andy Tran and Patrick M. Hassett May 10: Notes on Blast Resistance of Steel and Composite Building Structures, by Abolhassan Astaneh -Asl. April 10: Gusset Plates in Steel Bridges-Design and Evaluation, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. April 10: Steel Plate Shear Walls: An Option for Lateral Resistance in High-Rise Core Wall Buildings, by James O. Malley Dec.09: Economy of Steel-Framed Buildings for Seismic Loading, by Christopher Hewitt, Rafael Sabelli, and Jayson Bray. Oct.08: A Comparison of Frame Stability Analysis Methods in AISC 360 -05, by Charles J. Carter and Louis F. Gerschwinder. Sept.08: Quality Assured Steel Bridge Fabrication and Erection, by Jay P. Murphy June 08: Seismic Behavior and Design of Base Plates in Braced Frames, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. April 08: Cost-Effective Steel Bridge Fabrication and Erection, by Jay P. Murphy. June 07: Early California Accelerated Steel Bridge Construction, by Jay P. Murphy. June 07: Design of RBS Connections for Special Moment Frames, by Kevin S. Moore and Joyce Y. Feng. May 07: Progressive Collapse Prevention of Steel Frames with Shear Connections, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. Jan.07: Seismic Detailing of Special Concentrically Braced Frames, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Michael Cochran, and Rafael Sabelli. Aug. 06: Alfred Zampa Memorial Steel Suspension Bridge, by Alfred Mangus, Sarah Picker July 06: Buckling & Fracture of Concentric Braces Under Inelastic Loading, by B. Fell, A. Kanvinde, G. Deierlein, A. Myers, and X. Fu. Aug. 05: Steel Angle & Tee Connections for Gravity and Seismic Loads, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. May 05: Design of Shear Tab Connections for Gravity and Seismic Loads, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. Jul. 04: Buckling Restrained Braced Frames, by Walterio A. Lopez and Rafael Sabelli. May 04: Special Concentric Braced Frames, by Michael Cochran and William Honeck. Dec. 03: Steel Construction in the New Millennium, by Patrick M. Hassett. Aug.02: Cost Consideration for Steel Moment Frame Connections, by Patrick M. Hassett and James J. Putkey. June 02: Use of Deep Columns in Special Steel Moment Frames, by Jay Shen, Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl and David McCallen. May 02: Seismic Behavior and Design of Composite Steel Plate Shear Walls, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. Sept. 01: Notes on Design of Steel Parking Structures Including Seismic Effects, by Lanny J. Flynn, and Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. Jun '01: Metal Roof Construction on Large Warehouses or Distribution Centers, by John L. Mayo. Mar. 01: Large Seismic Steel Beam-to-Column Connections, by Egor P. Popov and Shakhzod M.Takhirov. Jan 01: Seismic Behavior and Design of Steel Shear Walls, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. Oct. '99: Welded Moment Frame Connections with Minimal Residual Stress, by Alvaro L. Collin and James J. Putkey. Aug. '99: Design of Reduced Beam Section (RBS) Moment Frame Connections, by Kevin S. Moore, James O. Malley and Michael D. Engelhardt. July '99: Practical Design and Detailing of Steel Column Base Plates, by William C. Honeck and Derek Westphal. Dec. '98: Seismic Behavior and Design of Gusset Plates, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. Mar. '98: Compatibility of Mixed Weld Metal, by Alvaro L. Collin and James J. Putkey. Aug. '97: Dynamic Tension Tests of Simulated Moment Resisting Frame Weld Joints, by Eric J. Kaufmann.

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Apr. '97: Seismic Design of Steel Column-Tree Moment-Resisting Frames, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. Jan. '97: Reference Guide for Structural Steel Welding Practices. Dec. '96: Seismic Design Practice for Eccentrically Braced Frames (Based on the 1994 UBC), by Roy Becker and Michael Ishler. Nov. '95: Seismic Design of Special Concentrically Braced Steel Frames, by Roy Becker. Jul. '95: Seismic Design of Bolted Steel Moment-Resisting Frames, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl. Apr. '95: Structural Details to Increase Ductility of Connections, by Omer W. Blodgett. Dec. '94: Use of Steel in the Seismic Retrofit of Historic Oakland City Hall, by William Honeck & Mason Walters. Dec '93: Common Steel Erection Problems and Suggested Solutions, by James J. Putkey. Oct. '93: Heavy Structural Shapes in Tension Applications. Mar. '93: Structural Steel Construction in the '90s, by F. Robert Preece and Alvaro L. Collin. Aug. '92: Value Engineering and Steel Economy, by David T. Ricker. Oct. '92: Economical Use of Cambered Steel Beams. Jul. '92: Slotted Bolted Connection Energy Dissipaters, by Carl E. Grigorian, Tzong-Shuoh Yang and Egor P. Popov. Jun. '92: What Design Engineers Can Do to Reduce Fabrication Costs, by Bill Dyker and John D. Smith. Apr. '92: Designing for Cost Efficient Fabrication, by W.A. Thornton. Jan. '92: Steel Deck Construction. Sep. '91: Design Practice to Prevent Floor Vibrations, by Farzad Naeim. Mar. '91: LRFD-Composite Beam Design with Metal Deck, by Ron Vogel. Dec. '90: Design of Single Plate Shear Connections, by Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Steven M. Call and Kurt M. McMullin. Nov. '90: Design of Small Base Plates for Wide Flange Columns, by W.A. Thornton. May '89: The Economies of LRFD in Composite Floor Beams, by Mark C. Zahn. Jan. '87: Composite Beam Design with Metal Deck. Feb. '86: UN Fire Protected Exposed Steel Parking Structures. Sep. '85: Fireproofing Open-Web Joists & Girders. Nov. '76: Steel High-Rise Building Fire.

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STRUCTURAL STEEL EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL

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Steel TIPS may be viewed and downloaded at www.steeltips.org

Steel

Participating Members of SSEC

ABOLHASSAN ASTANEH-ASL, Ph.D., P.E.; UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY MICHAEL COCHRAN, S.E.; WIEDLINGER ASSOCIATES, INC. RICH DENIO, S.E.; RUTHERFORD & CHEKENE RICH DEVEAU; ALBANY STEEL, INC. PATRICK M. HASSETT, S.E.; HASSETT ENGINEERING, INC. BRETT MANNING, S.E.; SCHUFF STEEL CO. KEVIN MOORE, S.E.; SIMPSON GUMPERTZ & HEGER JAY MURPHY; MURPHY PACIFIC CORPORATION RICHARD PERSONS; PERSONS & ASSOCIATES PAUL RANGEL; PDM STEEL SERVICE CENTERS, INC. DAVID LEE, Ph.D.; TAYLOR DEVICES, INC.

SSEC Corporate Sponsors: Taylor Devices Intelligent Engineering Contego International

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