Analytical investigation of the behavior of a new smart recentering shear damper under cyclic loading

Shear recentering polyurethane friction damper is a type of passive control device, including the shape memory alloy plates, polyurethane springs, and friction devices. This damper can be employed in the shear link of an inverted Y-shaped braced frame. As the failure mode is a shear failure, in this study, the shear recentering polyurethane friction damper is proposed to remove the residual deformation of the structure that remains after a strong earthquake and causes considerable damage to the structure. The shear recentering polyurethane friction damper can help the structure to return to the initial position. Furthermore, as compared to many other dampers, this new damper is of low cost, and its assembling requires a simple technology. In order to evaluate the performance of the damper, four different cases are considered. Furthermore, the effect of each component is investigated in each case, and a finite element analysis is performed under cyclic loading using the ABAQUS platform. In addition, for the sake of comparison, the shape memory alloy plates are replaced by steel ones, and a comparison for the results demonstrates that the recentering shear dampers can significantly decrease residual deformation, while there is a large amount of residual deformation in the steel damper. Due to using the polyurethane springs, the ultimate capacity of the shear shape memory alloy polyurethane friction damper is 500 kN; however, in the shear steel polyurethane friction damper, it is only about 300 kN. Furthermore, the energy dissipation by the shear shape memory alloy polyurethane friction damper is larger than the shear steel polyurethane friction damper. The results show that the steel plates cannot effectively increase energy dissipation.