Buckling-resistant design of dumbbell-shaped steel strip dampers

This paper investigates the effect of the geometry on the location and accumulation of plastic strains, buckling, and energy dissipation capacity of dumbbell-shaped steel strip dampers. A non-linear FEM model is first calibrated against previous static and cyclic loading tests and then used for nonlinear buckling analysis including consideration of initial imperfections. A computational parametric study on dumbbell-shaped steel strips with various geometrical properties is carried out to investigate the shear, flexural, and buckling limit states of the different geometries under monotonic loading conditions. The parametric study results from nonlinear buckling analysis with imperfections are finally used for regression analysis. A design formula is finally proposed for practical engineering, to define the minimum design slenderness of the steel strips that is sufficient to avoid their lateral torsional buckling.