Numerical investigation of roller steel damper for bridges

Dampers for bridges commonly requires large strength and deformation capacity, ordinary steel dampers have difficulties to satisfy the requirements. A novel roller steel damper is developed and numerical studies are carried out. The damper consists of a steel energy dissipation plate and a group of steel rollers, and the steel plate is extruded by the steel roller. Energy is dissipated through the plastic deformation of the energy dissipation plate. The damper was simulated by using a general finite element program called ABAQUS. The number of the steel rollers and the width of gaps between the steel rollers were adopted as simulation parameters. The results show that the energy dissipation capacity of the dampers is very satisfactory, and the number of steel rollers and the gaps between steel rollers have significant effects on the damper's performances. The calculation equation for estimating the strength of dampers is suggested based on the principle of virtual work, and further improved based on the analysis results.