Seismic Response Analysis of a 3-story Steel MRFCoupled with Pressurized Sand Dampers

Abstract

Seismic resilience is critical in the design of modern structural systems, particularlyfor steel moment-resisting frames (MRFs). Traditional energy dissipation mecha-nisms, such as viscous or friction dampers, are effective but often involve high in-stallation and maintenance costs. This study investigates the performance of pres-surized sand dampers (PSDs) as an innovative and cost-effective passive controldevice for mitigating seismic vibrations in steel MRF structures. The proposed sys-tem leverages the frictional and dissipative behavior of PSDs. This study presents anumerical analysis using a representative 3-story steel MRF building. The PSD isintegrated at selected locations within the frame. Time-history analyses are per-formed using different earthquake input motions. The study focused on key struc-tural response parameters, including the inter-story drift ratio, the base shear, andthe peak floor acceleration comparing the performance of the MRF with and withoutPSDs. The use of pressurized sand dampers reduces these seismic demands. Thisresearch provides insight into the practical implementation of PSDs for seismic con-trol in multi-story steel MRFs, offering a sustainable and adaptable solution for en-hancing earthquake resistance