EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EXISTING R/C BUILDING RETROFITTED WITH FRICTION DAMPERS

The authors have been researching and developing methods of retrofitting existing reinforced concrete buildings with friction dampers. Using an existing school building which will be demolished in the future, the authors conducted full-scale seismic tests to verify the effects of response control retrofit on actual buildings. Elasto-plastic behavior of an existing reinforced concrete school building seismically retrofitted with braces fitted with friction dampers was examined by comparing the results of a full-scale seismic test with analytical results. The analysis confirmed that applying braces with friction dampers could produce a similar retrofit effect to that verified by the test, and reproduce the behavior of the actual building accurately. The damage mitigation effect obtained by the retrofit procedure was identified from the absorbed hysteretic energy of each member and energy spectra.