Research On Properties Of Superplastic Alloy And Its Seismic Dampers

The technique of passive energy dissipation is rapidly growing. This technique can reduce structural response subjected to wind and earthquake through mounting seismic dampers into buildings. As one type of dampers, material selection of metal damper can strongly influence its energy dissipating capacity. On the basis of passive energy dissipation and material, this paper is done in below parts:(1) Samples of Zn-22A1 are prepared by four different processes. Tensile tests are carried out at room temperature and in four different strain-rates. The results show that materials obtained at 555 K exhibit high ductility, low flow stress and no work hardening. All these shows that materials obtained at 555 K are suitable for application as damping materials.(2) Compression tests of two kinds of Zn-22A1 samples obtained at 555 K are carried out at room temperature and in three different strain-rates. The results show that these materials exhibit almost the same properties of tensile and compression.(3) Based on parameters get from the tensile and compression tests, theory analysis of in-plane and out-plane displacement-dependent dampers is carried out as well as finite volume method analysis. The results are close and show that in-plane displacement-dependent damper possesses a better of dissipating energy. This means Zn-22A1 alloy is more suitable for in-plane displacement-dependent damper.(4) A 9-story frame with in-plane displacement-dependent dampers is analyzed by ANSYS finite-element analysis program using time-history analysis method. Results show that response subjected to earthquake of structures with dampers is less than structures without dampers. It is certain that the main frame is in elastic region under earthquake when dampers are installed into structures. The results show that Zn-22A1 dampers are of good ability of the seismic energy dissipation.The conclusions of tests and analysis can be used as a basic-consideration for design and use of Zn-22A1 dampers.