Performance of structures with clutch inerter dampers subjected to seismic excitation

Inerter-based passive control devices have great potential to efficiently mitigate damage to structures subjected to earthquakes as they can provide large added mass effects, while having a relatively small physical mass. The added mass effect of inerters is typically achieved through the conversion of translational motion to the rotation of a flywheel. In a clutch inerter damper (CID), energy transferred to the flywheel cannot transfer back to the structure. Despite this potentially advantageous behavior, few studies have considered the seismic performance of structures with CIDs. As a result, the effect of the device parameters (i.e., effective mass and damping), the ability of the device to delay yielding and collapse of the structure, and the relative effectiveness of the device in far-field and near-field earthquakes, which more often include a dominant pulse, are uncertain. This paper addresses these gaps in knowledge through a numerical study of SDOF structures. The numerical model considers the nonlinear behavior of the structure in addition to nonlinear behavior of the CID. Incremental dynamic analyses were performed with suites of recorded earthquake ground motions. The results of these analyses showed that the CID is typically significantly more effective than a comparable viscous damper. Also, while performance differences were observed for different earthquake types, the median performance is broadly similar. Overall, this work shows the CID is capable of delaying the onset of yielding and collapse and otherwise mitigating the effects of a wide range of types of seismic excitation; thus, further investigation on its use is warranted.

Automated summary

This paper addresses the seismic performance of structures with clutch inerter dampers (CID) through a numerical study of single degree of freedom (SDOF) structures. The results show that the CID is typically more effective than comparable viscous dampers and performs similarly across different earthquake types. Further investigation on the use of CID is warranted.