Journal of Constructional Steel Research 85 (2013) 140–150

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Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Development of crawler steel damper for bridges

Kailai Deng a, Peng Pan b,⁎, Chaoyi Wang a
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
b
Key Laboratory of Civil Engineering Safety and Durability of China Education Ministry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Dampers for bridges commonly require enormous capacity for strength and deformation; therefore, ordinary
Received 16 October 2012 steel dampers have difficulties in satisfying the requirements. In this paper, a novel crawler steel damper has
Accepted 13 March 2013 been developed and tested. The damper consists of two U-shaped steel energy dissipation plates and two
Available online 9 April 2013
connection plates, and the two U-shaped steel plates are bolted to the upper and lower connection plates.
Energy is dissipated through the plastic deformation of energy dissipation plates. Equations to estimate the
Keywords:
Bridge
strength of the damper were derived based on equilibrium and compatibility equation and the virtual
Crawler steel damper work principle. Four dampers were tested by using quasi-static cyclic loading schemes, and the thickness
Energy dissipation capacity of the energy dissipation plates and the height of the dampers were adopted as test parameters. Finite ele-
Strength estimation ment analyses were carried out to supplement the physical test results, and to improve the accuracy of equa-
Isotropic hardening tions for strength estimation. Major conclusions obtained in this study are as follows: (1) the performance of
the damper is mainly controlled by the thickness and height of the energy dissipation plates. (2) Finite ele-
ment analyses can simulate the mechanical behavior of the damper well. (3) Equations considering the
steel isotropic hardening can estimate the strength of the damper with satisfactory accuracy.
© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In highly seismic regions, isolation systems, e.g. rubber isolation
bearings and friction pendulum systems, are commonly used to re-
duce the earthquake forces to bridge structures. Although the isola-
tion systems can reduce the earthquake effects effectively to protect
bridge girder and piers from being damaged, the isolation systems
may sustain a very large displacement due to their small lateral stiff-
ness and inadequate energy dissipation capacity. Therefore, dampers
are installed to dissipate earthquake energy and control the lateral
displacement of the isolation systems.
Two categories of passive damping devices are commonly used
with the isolation system between bridge girder and piers. One main-
ly provides the stiffness and the other mainly provides the damping.
J. M. Kelly considered passive damping devices could reduce deforma-
tion of isolation system in earthquakes, but too large damping forces
may increase the response of upper structures, therefore, the damper
needs to be well designed and the damping forces need to be well
controlled [1]. Currently, viscous dampers and MR dampers are the
most widely used dampers in bridge engineering. Viscous dampers
belong to the passive damping devices. Many bridges have been
equipped with viscous dampers, e.g. the 91/5 highway over-crossing
in the southern California and Rion-Antiron cable stayed bridge in
western Greece [2]. MR dampers belong to the semi-active control
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 62794729; fax: +86 10 62788620.
E-mail address: panpeng@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn (P. Pan).
system, which has both the reliability of passive control system and
the adaptability of active control system [3]. In an earthquake MR
damper can change its restoring force based on the acceleration or
other response of the structure. H. Gavin found a semi-active system
that can dissipate the energy effectively without significantly increas-
ing the response of upper structures in an earthquake [4]. Twenty MR
dampers in total are installed in benchmark highway bridge struc-
ture [5]. Although plenty of engineering applications have been ob-
served, some shortcomings of these two dampers are still ineligible.
The costs of both MR dampers and viscous dampers are high. Durabil-
ity of high damping material in viscous dampers is not necessarily
good enough, and the damping fluid in MR dampers is easy to leak.
Metallic dampers have been used widely in building structure be-
cause of its low cost and good durability. M. Nakashima recommended
a low yield force of metallic dampers to dissipate the energy in an early
stage and high yield strength of main structure to avoid serious damage
[6]. Some metallic dampers, e.g. steel shear panel dampers and unbound-
ed braces are commonly used in building structure. However, both
dampers are designed for building structures with relatively low restor-
ing forces and small deformation capacity, which can not satisfy the de-
mands of bridge structures.
S. Kato et al. designed a J-shaped metallic damper shown in Fig. 1(a)
[7]. J-shaped damper has four energy dissipation plates, which are fixed
on the connection plates. A loading plate with two rollers equipped
at each end is placed in the middle of the damper. The rollers are
connected to the wall. When displacement occurs between wall and
connection plates, the damper will sustain a deformation and dissipate

0143-974X/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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 K. Deng et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 85 (2013) 140–150
Upper connection plate
Bolt J-shaped
plate
Roller
Lower connection plate
a) J-shaped damper
Fig. 1. J-shaped damper and U-shaped damper [8,9].
the energy. Some experimental and numerical study had been carried out
on the J-shaped damper. The result showed that the J-shaped damper can
effectively dissipate the energy during an earthquake and have a good
deformation capacity [8]. However, the steel plates of the J-shaped damp-
er in the study were too thin to meet the demand of bridge engineering,
and the damper's structure is too complex to be fabricated and installed.
S. Kishiki et al. developed a U-shaped damper shown in Fig. 1(b), which
can work with isolation bearing [9]. The U-shaped damper is commonly
used in the isolation layer. It works when relative displacement occurs
in the isolation layer. Some experimental results showed that the hyster-
esis curve of the U-shaped damper was saturated and stable, showing the
U-shaped damper could dissipate the energy effectively. However, during
the loading process, the yield section of the U-shaped damper concentrat-
ed on one location, leading the damper to an unsatisfactory low cycle
fatigue performance. Manson and Coffin proposed a fatigue life law,
which is referred to as the Manson–Coffin relation [10–13]. Some studies
related to the low cycle fatigue performance of hysteresis damper have
been carried out. Tsutomu Usami et al. studied the performance of buck-
ling restrained braces by a low-cycle fatigue test [14]. Chaofeng Zhang
studied static and dynamic cyclic performances of a low yield strength
steel shear panel damper [15]. These researches show that the numbers
of loading cycles sustained by the specimens have a close relationship
with the maximum strain.
In summary, a metallic damper with high restoring force and large
deformation capacity and good low cycle fatigue performance has a
broad engineering application prospect. A new damper called crawler-
damper for bridges is proposed in this paper. The structure of the damp-
er is first presented, and the equations to estimate the strength of the
damper were derived based on equilibrium and compatibility equations
and the virtual work principle. Four dampers were tested by using
quasi-static cyclic loading schemes, and the thickness of the energy dis-
sipation plates and the height of the dampers were adopted as test
Bolt
Straight part
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of crawler damper.
141
Isolation
bearing Bolt U-shaped plate
b) U-shaped damper
parameters. A series of finite element analyses were carried out to sup-
plement the physical test results. Finally, an improved strength estima-
tion formula considering steel isotropic hardening was proposed based
on the test and analyses results.
2. Crawler-damper and strength estimation
As shown in Fig. 2, the damper consists of two U-shaped steel energy
dissipation plates and two connection plates, which are designated as
upper connection plate and lower connection plate, respectively. The
two U-Shaped energy dissipation plates are bolted to the upper and
lower connection plates. The energy dissipation plates are the main
part of the damper, and energy is dissipated through their plastic defor-
mation. The upper connection plate is fixed on the bridge girder, and
the lower connection plate is fixed on the bridge pier. The connection
plates have another function, i.e. maintain the deformation pattern of
the energy dissipation plates. The U-shaped energy dissipation plates
can be divided into three parts, i.e. upper straight part, half-circle part,
and lower straight part. The upper straight part is elongated, and the
lower straight part is shortened when the damper deforms in one direc-
tion, and vice versa when the damper deforms in an opposite direction.
During the work process, the energy dissipation plate scrolls between
the connection plates just like a crawler. The name of the damper,
i.e. crawler damper exactly comes from the movement pattern of the
energy dissipation plates.
The yield section of the crawler damper moves along the energy dis-
sipation plates. Such mechanism can avoid the concentration of plastic-
ity at one cross-section, significantly improving the low cycle fatigue
performance of the damper. The deformation capacity of the damper
is mainly determined by the length of the straight parts of the energy
dissipation plate, thus the deformation capacity of the damper can be
easily enlarged by simply increasing the length of the upper and low
Upper connection plate
Half-circle part
Lower connection plate
142 K. Deng et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 85 (2013) 140–150

straight parts. This is deemed to be the biggest advantage of the crawler 1 π

v2 ¼ ∫ fMðl þ R sinφÞ þ ½Q ðl þ R sinφÞ þ NRð cosφ−1Þðl þ R sinφÞgRdφ
damper. EI 0
To calculate the strength of the crawler damper, a single U-shaped ð6Þ
energy dissipation plate is taken out and simply modeled as shown in
Fig. 3. As mentioned above, the energy dissipation plate is divided 1 l
v3 ¼ ∫ ½M−2NR þ Q ðl−xÞðl−xÞdx ð7Þ
into three parts, i.e. upper straight part, lower straight part and the EI 0
half-circle part. The upper and lower straight parts connect the
1 π
half-circle part at section SA and section SB, respectively. In the figure, v4 ¼ ∫ ðQ sinφ þ N cosφÞ sinφRdφ ð8Þ
EA 0
H and t represent the height and thickness of energy-dissipation plate
respectively. R represents the radius of the circle half-circle part. φ 1 h l π
i
is the angle of the section on half-circle part to section SA. Section v5 ¼ 2∫0 Qdxþ∫0 ðQ cosφ−N sinφÞ cosφRdφ ð9Þ
GA
SA and section SB transfer moments, shear forces and axial forces.
According to the symmetric condition, the absolute values of internal v ¼ v1 þ v2 þ v3 þ v4 þ v5 ¼ 0 ð10Þ
forces are identical between sections SA and SB. φ indicates the angle
of section to section SA. Deformation compatibility and force equilib- In the above equations, A and G are the areas of section SA and
rium conditions are satisfied at these two sections. In the model, the shearing modulus of steel, respectively. Eqs. (5), (6), and (7) repre-
energy-dissipation plate is simplified as Euler beam, the rotation sent the contributions of the moments of the upper straight part, of
angle and vertical displacement of section SA is zero, and the horizon- the half-circle part and of the lower straight part, respectively, to
tal displacement of section SA is equal to the relative displacement the vertical displacement of section SA. Eq. (8) represents the contri-
between the two connection plates. bution of axial force to the vertical displacement of section SA. Eq. (9)
The basic equations for the rotation angles at section SA are as represents the contribution of shear force to the vertical displacement
follows: of section SA. Eq. (10) represents the vertical displacement of section
SA, which is zero.
1 l
θ1 ¼ ∫ ðM þ QxÞdx ð1Þ The basic equations for the horizontal displacements at section SA
EI 0
are as follows:
1 π 1 π
θ2 ¼ ∫ Q ðl þ R sinφÞRdφ þ ∫0 ½M−NRð1− cosφÞdφ ð2Þ 2 l
EI 0 EI u1 ¼ ∫ ½2NR−M−Q ðl−xÞRdx ð11Þ
EI 0
1 l
θ3 ¼ ∫ ½M−2NR þ Q ðl−xÞdx ð3Þ 1 π 2
EI 0 u2 ¼ ∫ ½Q ðl þ R sinφÞ þ M−NRð1− cosφÞð cosφ−1ÞR dφ ð12Þ
EI 0
θ ¼ θ1 þ θ2 þ θ3 ¼ 0: ð4Þ
2 l
u3 ¼ ∫ ½2NR−M−Q ðl−xÞRdx ð13Þ
EI 0
In the above equations, M, Q, and N are the section SA's moment,
shear force and axial force, respectively. R is the radius of the center 1 π
line of the energy-dissipation plate, which equals (H − t) / 2. I is u4 ¼ ∫ ð−Q cosφ þ N sinφÞ sinφRdφ ð14Þ
GA 0
the bending moment of inertia of the cross-section, while E is the
young modulus of steel, and l is the length of the straight part. dx is u ¼ u1 þ u2 þ u3 þ u4 ¼ Δ ð15Þ
an infinitesimal unit of the straight parts and Rdφ is an infinitesimal
unit of the half-circle part. Eqs. (1), (2), and (3) represent the contri- Eqs. (11), (12), and (13) represent the contributions of the moments
butions of the moments of the upper straight part, of the half-circle of the upper straight part, of the half-circle part and of the lower straight
part and of the lower straight part, respectively, to the rotation of sec- part, respectively, to the horizontal displacement of section SA. Eq. (14)
tion SA. Eq. (4) represents the rotation of section SA, which equals represents the contribution of axial force to the horizontal displacement
zero. of section SA. Δ is the relative displacement between upper connection
The basic equations for the vertical displacements at section SA plate and lower connection plate. Eq. (15) represents the horizontal dis-
are as follows: placement of section SA, which is equal to the displacement between
the two connecting plates.
1 l
v1 ¼ ∫ ðM þ QxÞxdx ð5Þ Substituting Eqs (1) to (3) into Eq. (4), Eqs. (5) to (9) into Eq. (10), and
EI 0 Eqs. (11) to (14) into Eq. (15), and solving Eqs. (4), (10), and (15) simul-
taneously, the three unknowns, i.e. M, Q, N, can be solved as follows:
Section SA
2ΔEbt 3
N¼ ð16Þ
The height of plate (H)

48lR þ 12πR þ 4lt 2 þ πRt 2 ð3 þ 2μ Þ

2 3
R
The thickness of plate (t)
ϕ Q ¼0 ð17Þ

3
2ΔEbt R
M¼ ð18Þ
48lR2 þ 12πR3 þ 4lt 2 þ πRt 2 ð3 þ 2μ Þ
Y direction

The length of straight part (l)

In the above equations, b is the width of plate, and μ is Poisson's ratio
of steel. Based on Eqs. (16) to (18), the maximum stress of section SA
Section SB can be obtained as shown in Eq. (19).
X direction
M t N Nð6R þ t Þ
σ max ¼  þ ¼ ð19Þ
Fig. 3. Mechanical calculations sketch of crawler damper. I 2 A bt 2
 K. Deng et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 85 (2013) 140–150
The axial force N is exactly equal to the restoring force of the energy
dissipation plate, so it equals the yield strength of the energy dissipation
plate Fy when the maximum stress of section SA reaches the yield stress
of the steel fy. Therefore, Eq. (20) can be obtained.
2
bt
Fy ¼ f y
6R þ t
When the whole section yields, the ultimate strength is 1.5 times
of the yield strength. The ultimate restoring force can be calculated
as follow:
2
bt
F u1 ¼ f y
4R þ 2t=3
On the other hand, the yield strength of the energy dissipation plate
Fu1 can be obtained through the virtual work principle. Assuming the
plastic hinges will occur at sections SA and SB simultaneously, and the
sections reach their ultimate moment when the whole section gets
yield, virtual work equation can be obtained as follow s:
2t 2 b δ t 2 bδ
F u1 δ ¼ 2Mθ ¼ f y  ¼ fy
4t 2R 4R
Note that δ in the above equation represents an infinitesimal dis-
placement of the crawler damper, and the ultimate moments of section
SA and SB both equal fyt 2b/4. Solving Eq. (21) for Fu1 the solution can be
obtained as
t2 b
F u1 ¼ f y
4R
Based on the upper bound and lower bound theories, Eqs. (21) and
(23) represent the lower bound and upper bound of the real solution,
respectively. Since the thickness of the energy dissipation plate t is
much smaller than the radius of the energy dissipation plate R, the
upper bond solution is very close to the lower bond solution, and both
are very close to the real solution. Therefore, the ultimate strength of
the energy dissipating plate can be taken as follows:
2
t b
F u1 ¼ f y
4R
Each crawler damper consists of two energy dissipation plates,
therefore, the ultimate strength of the crawler damper is:
2 2
t b t b
F u ¼ 2F u1 ¼ f y ¼ fy
2R H−t
3. Experimental study of crawler damper
3.1. Test plan of crawler damper
The damper has two important parameters, i.e. the thickness t and
height H of the energy-dissipation plate. Note that H = 2R + t. As
shown in Table 1, four specimens were designed. Three are to investi-
gate the effects of t and H on the performances of the crawler damper
subjected to cyclic loading, and the other is to verify the effectiveness
of the connection plate for improving the low cycle fatigue performance
of the crawler damper.
S1 is the standard specimen in the test, which adopts energy dis-
sipation plates with a thickness of 16 mm, and a height of 300 mm.
S2 has the same energy dissipation plate as S1 but without the con-
nection plates. S3 adopts energy dissipation plates with a thickness
of 25 mm, and S4 adopts energy dissipation plates with a height of
400 mm. The energy dissipation plates for the four specimens are
143
all made of Q235. Coupon tests for the steel material were conducted,
and the yield strength and the elongation percentage for both 16 mm
and 25 mm thick plates turn out to be similar, which are about
280 Mpa, and 28%, respectively.
As shown in Fig. 4, the loading setup consists of an actuator and a
loading frame. The loading frame was tied down on the ground with
ð20Þ
anchor bolts. The upper and lower connection plates were bolted to
the loading frame by using high strength bolts. The loading frame
has four pin connections at the beam to column connections, and
the forces exerted by the actuator are taken to be equal to the restor-
ing forces provided by the dampers. The upper beam compresses the
dampers in vertical direction when the frame sustains large horizon-
tal deformations. However, it is found that such vertical deformations
ð21Þ
have little effects on the mechanical behavior of the dampers based
on the FEM analyses, which will be further explained in a later sec-
tion. So it is expected to deform without generating any reaction
forces. Therefore, the forces exerted by the actuator are taken to be
equal to the restoring forces provided by the dampers.
The loading adopts displacement control and the loading scheme
is given in Fig. 5. In reference to the current Chinese bridge design
practice, the demand of horizontal displacement of the damper is
commonly in the range of 200 mm to 400 mm, and we choose
ð22Þ
300 mm in this study. As shown in the figure, all the specimens are
first loaded to an amplitude of 50 mm with two cycles, and then to
an amplitude of 100 mm with two cycles, and finally to an amplitude
of 300 mm with multiple cycles until failure.
As shown in Fig. 4, a displacement transducer was installed be-
tween the upper and lower connection plates to measure the defor-
mation. The restoring force of the damper is measured by the load
ð23Þ cell of the actuator. Five strain gauges were glued at equal spaces on
the interior surface of the half-circle part and another two strain
gauges were glued on the interior surfaces of the upper and lower
straight parts. The layout of the strain gauges is given in Fig. 6. The
strain gauges are numbered from No. 1 to 7.
3.2. Test results
As mentioned before, S1 is the standard specimen. The Hysteresis
curve and failure mode of S1 are shown in Fig. 7(a) and (b), respec-
tively. It can be observed that the hysteresis curve is stable and satu-
ð24Þ rated, showing that the damper has a satisfactory energy dissipation
capacity. As shown in Fig. 7(b), the crack occurs at the section
where the plastic hinge is assumed in the analytical calculation. The
ultimate strength of S1 is about 100 kN. The crawler damper can
scroll smoothly between the upper and lower connection plates dur-
ing the loading process. Fig. 7(c) and (d) give snapshots of S1 at load-
ð25Þ ing amplitudes of 100 mm and 300 mm, respectively. The pictures
show that the yield section moves in the loading process. At the
17th cycle of 300 mm the energy dissipation plate got fractured.
The energy dissipation plates were installed on the edge of the
connection plates for S2, so that the movement of the energy dissipa-
tion plates are not constrained by the connection plates. The hystere-
sis curve of S2 is compared with that of S1 in Fig. 8. It can be observed
that the ultimate strength of S2 is about 80 kN, which is slightly
smaller than that of S1.
During the test, the energy dissipation plates were not able to
scroll because of the lack of connection plates, and the plasticity
Table 1
Major parameters of specimens.
H(mm) t(mm) Width(mm) Remark
S1 300 16 200 Standard specimen
S2 300 16 200 Effect of connection plates
S3 300 25 200 Thickness of energy dissipation plate
S4 400 16 200 Height of energy dissipation plate
144 K. Deng et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 85 (2013) 140–150

500

Disp-tansducer
1550
400

3300

Fig. 4. Loading setup (mm).

was concentrated at the sections close to the edges. At the 12th cycle
of 300 mm loading amplitude, the energy dissipation plates of S2 got
fractured, showing worse low cycle fatigue behavior than S1. To fur-
ther explain the phenomena, strain obtained from the strain gauges
is investigated. As mentioned before, seven strain gauges were
glued on each specimen with two at the straight parts and five at
the half-circle part (refer to Fig. 6). Table 2 gives the strain obtained
from the strain gauges when the crawler damper's deformation firstly
reaches 300 mm. Note that only the data from strain gauge No. 1 to 4
is given considering the symmetric condition of the specimen.
According to the material test results, the yield stress of the steel is
280 MPa, indicating that the yield strain is about 1200u. u represents
a micro-strain (×10 −6). As shown in Table 2, the sections of the loca-
tions where strain gauge No. 1 to 4 are installed are all significantly
yielded for S1, whereas plasticity mainly concentrated close to the
section where strain gauge No. 1 is installed for S2. Such observation
further demonstrates that the upper and lower connection plates are
indispensable to maintain the favorable deformation pattern of the
crawler damper.
Compared to standard specimen S1, S3 has energy dissipation
plates with a thickness of 25 mm. The comparison of hysteresis
curve between S1 and S3 is shown in Fig. 9. The ultimate strength
of S3 is 255 kN, which is significantly higher than that of S1. Com-
pared to S1, the thickness of the energy dissipation plates increases
by 1.5 times for S3, whereas the ultimate strength increases by 2.5
times. It is concluded that increasing the thickness of energy dissipa-
tion plate can effectively increase the ultimate strength of the crawler
damper. At the same time, an increase of thickness of the energy dis-
sipation plates leads to a significant increase of equivalent plastic
strain for the energy dissipation plates, which will be demonstrated
by the finite element analyses in the following section. Such an in-
crease of the equivalent plastic strain significantly degrades the low
cycle fatigue performance of the crawler damper. Therefore, the ener-
gy dissipation plates of S3 got fractured at the 7th cycle 300 mm load-
ing amplitude.
100

400
Loading amplitude (mm)

300
7 6
200
5
100
0
Strain gauges 4
-100
-200
-300 3
1 2
-400
Loading process

Fig. 5. Sketch of loading scheme. Fig. 6. Strain gauges layout plan.

 K. Deng et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 85 (2013) 140–150 145

a) Hysteresis curve b) Failure mode

150

100

50
Force/kN

-50

-100

-150
-400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400
Disp/mm

c) Snapshot at 100mm d) Snapshot at 300mm

Fig. 7. Hysteresis curve and failure mode of S1.

Compared to S1, S4 has energy dissipation plates with a height of
400 mm. The comparison on hysteresis curve between S1 and S4 is
shown in Fig. 10. The ultimate strength of S4 is 65kN, which is
much smaller than that of S1. Due to the increase of energy dissipa-
tion plates' height, the equivalent plastic strain of S4 is smaller than
S1 for a single cyclic loading with the same loading amplitude. The
energy dissipation plates got fractured at the 28th cycle of 300 mm
loading amplitude, showing a better low cycle fatigue performance
than S1.
Based on the comparison among S1, S2, S3, and S4, it can be ob-
served that both the thickness and the height of energy dissipation
plate have significant effects on the performance of the damper
subjected to cyclic loading. An increase of the thickness of the energy
dissipation plates can increase the ultimate strength of the crawler ef-
fectively, but it will degrade the low cycle fatigue performance. An in-
crease of the height of the energy dissipation plates will decrease the
ultimate strength of the crawler damper, but can enhance the low
cycle fatigue performance.
4. FEM analyses
The ultimate strengths obtained from the tests are compared with
those calculated by Eq. (25), and the comparison results are given in
Table 3. It can be found that the values calculated by Eq. (25) are sig-
nificantly smaller than the test results. The main reason for this phe-
nomenon is that the isotropic and kinematical hardening effects of

a) Hysteresis curve b) Failure mode

150 S1
S2
100

50
Force/kN

-50

-100

-150
-400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400
Disp/mm

Fig. 8. Comparison between S2 and S1.

146 K. Deng et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 85 (2013) 140–150

Table 2 Table 3
Data of strain gauges. Comparison on ultimate strength of specimens with equation.

1 2 3 4 T(mm) H(mm) B(mm) Test (kN) Equation (kN) Error

S1 2506 47351 42442 3792 S1 16 300 200 100 50.48 49.52%

S2 33658 20328 14139 256 S3 25 300 200 255 127.27 50.09%
S4 16 400 200 65 37.33 42.56%

300 S1
S3

200

100
Force/kN

-100

-200

-300
-400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400
Disp/mm

Fig. 9. Comparison between S3 and S1.

the steel are not considered in Eq. (25), and the equation to calculate
the ultimate strength of the crawler damper needs to be improved. To
Fig. 11. Finite element model.
this end, finite element analyses were conducted to supplement the
physical tests, and further improve the calculation of the crawler
damper's strength.
The model shown in Fig. 11 was built in general FEM software loaded to amplitudes of 50 mm, 100 mm, and 300 mm with two cy-
called ABAQUS. Based on the symmetric condition of the damper, cles each.
only a single U-shaped energy dissipation plate was modeled. The en- In the finite element analyses, the steel material used the model
ergy dissipation plate was assumed to be a deformable part and for metals subjected to cyclic loading. This model adopts Von Mises
modeled by 8-node linear brick, reduced integration with hourglass yield criterion and considers both isotropic and kinematical harden-
control (C3D8R) elements. The connection plates were assumed to ing. The back stress and isotropic hardening stress are shown
be a rigid part and modeled by 4-node, bilinear quadrilateral in Eqs. (26) and (27), respectively. The back stress indicates the
(R3D4) elements. The whole model has 1488 nodes and 980 ele-
ments. The energy dissipation plate is fixed on the connecting plates Table 4
at the locations where the bolts are installed. Hard contact with a Material parameter for FEM.
0.3 coefficient of friction is assumed between the connection plates C1 γ1 C2 γ2 C3 γ3 Q∞ v
and the energy dissipation plates. The loading scheme for the anal-
7 × 109 250 1.5 × 1010 400 4 × 109 200 1.7 × 108 8
yses is assumed to be similar to that for physical tests. The lower
connection plate was fixed, and the upper connection plate was

400
150
S1 350
S4
100
300

50
Stress (MPa)

250
Force/kN

0 200

150
-50 Numerical
100
16mm
-100
50 25mm

-150 0
-400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025
Disp/mm Plastic strain

Fig. 10. Comparison between S4 and S1. Fig. 12. Coupon test and numerical material law.
 K. Deng et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 85 (2013) 140–150 147

a) S1 b) S2
Experiment

Experiment FEM
150 100
FEM

100
50
50
Force/kN

Force/kN
0 0

-50
-50
-100

-150 -100
-400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400
Disp/mm Disp/mm

c) S3 d) S4
Experiment Experiment
300 FEM 80 FEM

60
200
40
100
20
Force/kN

Force/kN

0 0

-20
-100
-40
-200
-60

-300 -80
-400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400 -400 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 400
Disp/mm Disp/mm

Fig. 13. Comparison between experiment and FEM results.

movement of the yield surface, and isotropic hardening stress indi- results of the steel materials and the fitting of the numerical material
cates the increase of radius of the yield surface. law are presented in Fig. 12. In coupon test the max plastic strain is
limited at 0.02. In this figure, the x-coordinate corresponds to the
Xn   plastic strain and Y-coordinate is the hardening stress. It can be ob-
Ck −γ ε pl
α¼ 1−e k ð26Þ served that the material law fits the steel material test results very
γ
k¼1 k
well.
   FEM analyses were conducted, and analysis results are compared
 pl
σ ¼ σ 0 þ Q ∞ 1−e
0 −vε with those obtained in physical tests. Fig. 13 gives the comparison
ð27Þ
on the hysteresis curves between the tests and FEM analyses. It can
be found that the FEM analysis results agree very well with those
In the above equations, ε pl is the equivalent plastic strain and Ck obtained from the tests, demonstrating the effectiveness of the FEM
and γk are the parameters of the model. Q∞ represents the limit of models.
the isotropic hardening stress and v represents the speed of steel As mentioned before the upper beam of the loading frame com-
hardening. σ|0 represents the initial yield stress [16]. In the FEM anal- presses the dampers in vertical direction when the frame sustains
yses, the initial yield stress is 280 MPa, which is identical with the large horizontal deformations. In the above FEM analyses, the vertical
material for physical tests. The elastic module is 206 GPa and the displacements were considered. To investigate their effects to the
Poisson's ratio is 0.3. n is assumed to be 3, and the associated Ck and dampers' behaviors, FEM models of the dampers without considering
γk (k = 1, 2, 3) are determined based on the stress strain curve the vertical displacements were analyzed, and the results are com-
obtained from the coupon test. The details about the parameters pared with those considering the vertical displacements. Fig. 14(a)
adopted for the material model are given in Table 4. Coupon test shows the comparison between the two types of model for the
148 K. Deng et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 85 (2013) 140–150

a) Effect of vertical displacement b) Effect of hardening

Without hardening
Without V-disp
With V-disp With hardening
100 100

50 50
Force/kN

Force/kN
0 0

-50 -50

-100 -100
-300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300 -300 -200 -100 0 100 200 300
Disp/mm Disp/mm

Fig. 14. FEM analyses on the vertical displacement and hardening stress.

standard specimen S1. It is found that the hysteresis curve of the thickness to its height) is carried out. The method of least squares
model without considering vertical displacement is very similar to was used to fit these data based on the equation given in Eq. (28).
that of the model considering the vertical displacement, showing
that the effects of the vertical displacement to the damper behaviors CovðX; Y Þ
ρx;y ¼ ð28Þ
are negligible. σ xσ y
The analysis results of the models without considering hardening
are also presented in Fig. 14(b) for S1. It is found that the hysteresis Cov(X,Y) indicates the covariance of X and Y, and σx indicates the
curves of the models considering hardening are very different with standard deviation of X, and σy indicates the standard deviation of
those without considering hardening, demonstrating that hardening Y. A value of ρx,y close to 1.0 indicates nearly positive correlations be-
has significant effects on the damper's behavior. The ultimate strength tween the two variables. The correlation coefficient is 0.96, which is
obtained from the models without considering hardening effects are also very close to 1.0, showing that the maximum PEEQ is proportional
compared with the analytical method (Eq. (25)) in Table 5. The results to t/H. Therefore, Eq. (29) is assumed, in which λ is a coefficient
obtained from the numerical analyses and those obtained from the ana- that needs to be further determined.
lytical equations are similar with a difference no more than 10%. The
good agreement between the numerical and analytical results shows pl
that the analytical method is correct. ε ¼ λt=H ð29Þ
Since the number of specimens is still limited for physical tests, fi-
nite element analyses were further conducted to quantitatively ana- Substituting Eq. (29) into Eqs. (26) and (27), and considering the
lyze the effects of the thickness and height of energy dissipation isotropic hardening and kinematical hardening effects, the ultimate
plates, and improve the strength estimation equation, i.e. Eq. (24). stress calculation equation, i.e. Eq. (25) can be improved as Eq. (30).
20 models considering different height and thickness of the energy
dissipation plate were built, and the details of the parameters are    t 2 b
−vλt=H
given in Table 6. F u ¼ f y þ σ h 1−e ð30Þ
H−t
Eqs. (26) and (27) show that the equivalent plastic strain has a
close relationship to the ultimate strength of the steel material. σh(1 − e − vλt/H) indicates the total hardening effects of steel ma-
Table 7 gives the maximum equivalent plastic strain (PEEQ) in the terial, and σh indicates the increase of radius of the yield surface at ul-
model and the ultimate strength calculated by ABAQUS for all the timate status. σh can be determined as follows:
models. Note that the ultimate strength given in the table has been
multiplied by a factor of 2.0 since only a single energy dissipation Ck
σh ¼ Q∞ þ ∑ ð31Þ
plate is modeled in the FEM analyses. Correlation analysis of the max- γk
imum PEEQ to t/H (the ratio of the energy dissipation plate's
As mentioned before, λ is a coefficient needs to be further deter-
mined. As shown in Eq. (32), it is determined by minimizing the
Table 5
Comparison between analytical method and FEM model without hardening.
Table 6
T(mm) H(mm) B(mm) Without hardening (kN) Equation (kN) Error Parameters of FEM analyses.
S1 16 300 200 51.46 50.48 1.94%
t(mm) H (mm) Total 20 models
S3 25 300 200 137.80 127.27 8.27%
S4 16 400 200 40.80 37.33 9.29% 19, 22, 25, 28, 30 210, 240, 270, 300 20
 K. Deng et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 85 (2013) 140–150 149

Table 7 Table 8
Results of FEM. Comparison on ultimate strength of specimens with equation.

t(mm) H(mm) PEEQ Ultimate strength (kN) T(mm) H(mm) B(mm) Test (kN) Equation (kN) Error

19 210 1 196 S1 16 300 200 100 91.22 −8.78%

19 240 0.7229 172 S3 25 300 200 255 239.55 −6.06%
19 270 0.5383 148 S4 16 400 200 65 64.63 −0.57%
19 300 0.4247 128
22 210 1.245 276
22 240 0.8929 236
22 270 0.6703 204 that PEEQ is proportional to t/H, which is the ratio of the energy dis-
22 300 0.5169 176 sipation plate's thickness to its height. A correlation analysis of
25 210 1.503 368 log(t/H) and log(Num), where Num is the number of loading cycles,
25 240 1.086 312 is carried out, and the relationship between t/H and Num is obtained.
25 270 0.8077 268
It is found that the R-square is 0.9987, which indicates that the fitting
25 300 0.6217 240
28 210 1.775 464 formula has a high accuracy. The fitting results are shown in Fig. 16,
28 240 1.286 396 and the relationship between t/H and Num is given in Eq. (33). Note
28 270 0.9655 348 that the number of specimens is very limited in this study, and
28 300 0.7409 300
more tests need to be carried out in the future to further investigate
30 210 1.973 560
30 240 1.433 460 the fatigue performance of the damper and the accuracy of Eq. (33).
30 270 1.074 404
t −0:53
30 300 0.8267 352 ¼ 0:23Num ð33Þ
H

sum of square of the residuals. FuFEM is the ultimate strength obtained

5. Conclusion
from FEM model.

! A new steel damper named crawler damper is proposed in the

   t 2 b
min∑ F uFEM − f y þ σ h 1−e
−λvt=H
ð32Þ
H−t
Based on the data given in Table 7, it can be obtained that λ =
5.025 and the R-square equals to 0.997. R-square is the square of
the correlation between the response values and the predicted re-
sponse values. A value close to 1.0 indicates that a large proportion
of variance is accounted for by the model [17]. The errors between
the ultimate strengths calculated by Eq. (30) and those obtained
from FEM analyses are shown in Fig. 15. The errors are all no more
than 5%, demonstrating that the strengths calculated by Eq. (30)
agree very well with the FEM analyses.
The accuracy of Eq. (30) is further checked by comparing the ulti-
mate stress calculated by the equation with those obtained from the
physical tests, and the comparison results are given in Table 8. It is
found that the calculation results are similar to the test results with
errors no more than 10%, showing that Eq. (30) can estimate the ulti-
mate strength of the crawler damper with satisfactory accuracy.
Above statement shows that the low cycle fatigue performance of
U-shaped damper is mainly related to the max PEEQ. Eq. (29) shows
paper. Both finite element analyses and physical tests were conducted
to investigate the performance of the damper. Equations to estimate
the ultimate strength of the damper are proposed and improved
based on the tests and analysis results. Major conclusions obtained in
this study are as follows:
(1) The connection plates can maintain the deformation pattern of
the crawler damper, endowing the damper a better low cycle
fatigue performance. The hysteresis curve of the crawler
damper is stable and saturated, showing its satisfactory energy
dissipation capacity.
(2) The height and thickness of the energy dissipation plate have
significant effects on the performance of the damper. Increase
of the thickness of the energy dissipation plates can increase
the ultimate strength of the crawler effectively, but will de-
grade the low cycle fatigue performance. An increase of the
height of the energy dissipation plates will decrease the ulti-
mate strength of the crawler damper, but can enhance the
low cycle fatigue performance.
(3) The improved formula considering the isotropic and kinematical
hardening effects of steel materials can estimate the ultimate

0.04 -1.05

0.03 -1.1

0.02 -1.15

0.01 -1.2
Fitting error

Log (t/H)

0 -1.25

-0.01 -1.3

-0.02 -1.35
Test results
-0.03 -1.4 Fitting curve

-0.04 -1.45
4 8 12 16 20 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6
Models No. log (Num)

Fig. 15. Fitting errors between equation calculation and FEM analyses. Fig. 16. Fitting results for low cycle fatigue performance of crawler damper.
150 K. Deng et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 85 (2013) 140–150
strength of the crawler damper with satisfactory accuracy. The
formula for low cycle performance of the damper is proposed
though correlation analysis and it has a high accuracy.
Acknowledgement
Financial support by National key Basic Research Program of China
(973 Program) under grant No. 2012CB026204, that by Natural Science
Foundation of China under grant nos. 51178250 and 51261120377, and
that by Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program under
Grant nos. 2010Z01001 and 2012THZ02-2 are gratefully acknowledged.
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