Enhancing seismic resilience in hybrid steel frame – Light wood shear wall structures with slotted-bolted dampers: Design parameters and performance evaluation using “DowelType” hysteretic model

Abstract

Incorporating slotted-bolted dampers into multi-story hybrid Steel Frame – Light Wood Shear Wall (SF-LWSW) structures presents a promising avenue to enhance seismic resilience. This study conducts comprehensive seismic performance assessments utilizing nonlinear time-history analyses across a suite of earthquakes. The research establishes both a detailed and a simplified numerical modeling approach, employing the “DowelType” hysteretic model tailored to simulate the shear behavior of dowel-type fasteners in wood structures. Key structural design parameters encompass the wall-to-frame stiffness ratio, the damper activation load level, and the slot length. The inter-story drift, the residual drift, the wall force level, and the frame force level are selected as performance indicators. Results show that the dampers are efficient in reducing inter-story drifts, particularly for upper stories and structures with large stiffness ratios. The application of dampers substantially mitigates the shear forces within the walls, culminating in structurally resilient systems even under major earthquakes.