Seismic retrofit of existing structures using friction dampers

Conventional methods of seismic rehabilitation with concrete shear walls or steel bracing are not considered suitable for some buildings as upgrades with these methods would have required expensive and time consuming foundation work. Supplemental damping in conjunction with appropriate stiffness offered an innovative and attractive solution for the seismic rehabilitation of such structures. This paper deals with the use of friction damper as a passive dissipative device in order to seismic retrofit of existing structures and discusses the design criteria and seismic analysis of a building. The structure is modeled using the finite element program Sap2000 and is analysed using both non-linear static pushover analysis and non-linear time history analysis.