Experimental Research on an Assembled Steel Damping Device with the Large Temperature Displacement

The cylinder-shaped damper is proved reliable in mechanical performance and every single-body can simultaneously provide bi-directional damping force. In order to take advantage of these benefits in the long- span bridge, an assembled steel damping device is developed in this paper. A fluid lock-up device is connected in series with a cylinder-shaped steel damper, which can meet the requirement of girders stretch out and draw back freely for large displacements under temperature load, and can control the bi-directional seismic vibration of the structure under earthquake load. A series of quasi-static tests were carried out on the steel damper, the fluid lock-up device and the assembled device. The test results show that a low force is generated to allow unrestricted motion at low translational speeds. Yet, when a transient event occurs, the lock-up device activates, and the steel damper can exhibit good hysteretic behavior due to its plastic deformation.