Fluid Viscous Dampers: an Effective Way to Suppress Pedestrian-induced Motions in Footbridges

In the civil engineering field, fluid viscous dampers, used extensively in military applications, have found commercial applications on buildings and bridges subjected to seismic and/or wind storm inputs. Because fluid damping technology was proven thoroughly reliable and robust, implementation on footbridges to suppress undesirable pedestrian-induced vibrations is taking place. . This presentation provides a brief overview of fluid damping technology with specific case studies being provided from pedestrian bridges now equipped with fluid viscous dampers. The viscous dampers are used to completely suppress the feedback between the pedestrians and the bridge and/or wind-induced vibrations. Design requirements of viscous damping devices for footbridge are discussed. The tested performance of structures with fluid viscous dampers show that tremendous gains in performance can be realized at relatively low cost.