Pounding Mitigation Design and Real-Time Hybrid Simulation for a Novel Viscous Damper Applied in Bridges

When the actual displacement of viscous damper exceeds the stroke limit, excessive pounding force may be generated, resulting in damage to the damper. To address this issue, a novel viscous damper with variable stiffness, simple processing, and good economy is proposed. First, the load-displacement relation of the novel viscous damper is established through theoretical analysis and experimental studies. Second, numerical simulations and a series of parametric analyses are conducted to analyze the pounding mitigation effect of the proposed damper. Third, real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) for considering the pounding effect of the novel viscous damper is presented. Finally, design recommendations for the pounding mitigation design of the novel viscous damper are given. The results show that the novel viscous damper effectively reduces the amplitudes of the pounding force and acceleration by 25% and 24%, respectively. The Fourier power of acceleration decreases in the region from 0.6 Hz to 3.3 Hz. The results of RTHS demonstrate that the real-time hybrid testing system can effectively simulate the pounding effect of the proposed damper. However, the normalized error peak value of velocity between RTHS and the reference result exceeds 10%, indicating that the proposed damper considering the pounding effect imposes new requirements to the real-time hybrid testing method.