Taylor Devices Logo
RESOURCES

Fluid Viscous Dampers
White Paper

125. Seismic Performance and Resilience Comparison of Three Designs of a Hypothetical 6-Story Steel Building in Los Angeles: Special Moment Frame (SMF), Base Isolated SMF, and SMF with Viscous Dampers

This paper studies the seismic performance and resilience of three different designs of a hypothetical six-story steel building located at a near-fault site in Los Angeles, California. The three lateral seismic resistance systems evaluated satisfy the requirements of ASCE 7-22 and are: (i) fixed-base Special Moment Frame (SMF or FB-SMF); (ii) SMF base isolated with triple friction pendulums isolators (BI-SMF); and (iii) SMF with fluid viscous dampers (SMF-VD). All three buildings are designed to satisfy the minimum requirements of ASCE 7 for a Risk Category II building.
Case Study

123. Sound Transit Light Rail

The Federal Way Link Extension Project provides an 8-mile extension of the light- rail system from Angle Lake to Federal Way, Wash. Learn how Lock-up Devices from Taylor Devices were used in this project.
Case Study

122. ‘Necessity is the Mother of Invention’ How challenges for The Artise turned into willingness to create something new

The Artise utilized a one-of-a-kind structural system aimed to solve several design challenges at once and, consequently, resulted in at least 25% material savings compared to what’s traditionally required for an office building of comparable size and materials. By using buckling restrained braces and fluid viscous dampers that skip floors, and a moment frame sub system in between brace points, the lateral resisting footprint was spread out and the pieces minimized. This reduced demands on the superstructure and the foundations. Further, by eliminating all lateral framing below grade, the design saved even more on cost.
Case Study

121. Prescriptive Design of Damped Moment Frames

A new building design procedure using dampers has been developed, validated, and published with certification from the International Code Council. This new design procedure opens the door for more damper applications in new steel structures by eliminating the requirements for nonlinear response spectrum analysis and peer review in damped buildings.
White Paper

120. Improving structural performance of an existing EBF and moment frame structure using fluid viscous dampers

Improving the performance of existing buildings is a critical function for engineers and one of the most impactful ways we can improve the sustainability of building structures. By re-using and upgrading existing building stock, we help to extend the usable life of structures that otherwise would pose safety risks to our communities.

This paper presents a case study of the voluntary seismic retrofit of 651 Gateway Boulevard in South San Francisco, California.
White Paper

119. A prescriptive method for the design of new steel moment frame structures with supplemental damping

This paper presents a prescriptive method for the design of new steel moment frame structures with supplemental damping using fluid viscous dampers (FVDs). The prescriptive method uses Modal Response Spectrum Analysis (MRSA) instead of Nonlinear Response History Analysis (NLRHA) as the basis for evaluation. Additionally, the procedure decouples the design of the moment frame from the damper frame, reducing design iterations. This makes the use of FVDs in new buildings easier to evaluate at schematic level design and significantly reduces the effort for full design. The procedure produces a 25% viscous damping ratio at the Design Earthquake (10% probability of exceedance in 50 years) and requires the use of nonlinear dampers with a damping exponent, alpha of 0.4.
White Paper

118. A review of the state of practice for fluid viscous damper applications in North America and New Zealand

This paper will explore best practices collected through involvement with hundreds of damper projects worldwide. Lessons learned through the entire damper design process, from schematic level decisions through construction implementation, will be explored for both steel and concrete buildings. The purpose of this paper is to broaden readers’ understanding of FVD applications in the North American and New Zealand markets with the aim of reducing barriers and to demonstrate the ease of design and implementation of damped solutions.
Technical Brief

117. Prescriptive Design of Damped Moment Frames: Simplifying building design with fluid viscous dampers by using an ICC-approved prescriptive method

Taylor Devices’ dampers are featured on the cover photo of the November issue of STRUCTURE magazine, along with an article about the Taylor Damped Moment Frame™. Written by Nathan Canney, Ph.D., P.E., Konrad Eriksen, and Alan Klembczyk, the article covers everything from an introduction to dampers to how the TDMF™ compares to other LFRS in building performance, loss and recovery time at the DE level.
White Paper

116. Practical Design Procedure for Steel Moment Frames with Fluid Viscous Dampers

This paper outlines a practical design procedure for steel moment frames with fluid viscous dampers. The design procedure is being developed in accordance with International Code Council Evaluation Service (ICC-ES) AC 494, “Acceptance Criteria for Qualification of Building Seismic Performance of Alternative Seismic Force-Resisting Systems.” The new design procedure decouples the design of the moment frames and the damping system to minimize model complexity and design iteration. Notably, the design of the moment frames follows typical moment frame design procedures found in AISC 341 and ASCE/SEI-7 chapter 12, but with reduced strength and drift requirements to account for reduction in the seismic response provided by the damping system.
Through state-of-the-art FEMA P-695 incremental dynamic analysis on a suite of nearly 100 archetype designs, the design procedure is shown to produce steel moment frame designs that meet the seismic collapse safety requirements of FEMA P-695 and ASCE/SEI-7, while also significantly reducing steel tonnage when comparing to traditional steel moment frames.

Thank You!

A Taylor Devices Representative will be in touch shortly.