Improved Behaviour of Accordion Metallic Dampers Affected by the Increasing Number of Layers

In recent years, thin-walled accordion tubes under axial cyclic loading due to their appropriate energy absorption mechanism and behavioral characteristics were suggested as hysteretic metallic dampers. The effectiveness of accordion metallic damper (AMD) to protect and mitigate the response of structures under seismic loading is well established both experimentally and analytically. In this paper for the purpose of improvement, the effects of increasing the number of accordion tube layers on the damping behavior of AMD investigated experimentally and analytically. Experimental studies were conducted on single layer and two layer specimens under axial cyclic loading by dynamic universal actuator. Using the experimental results, analytical studies based on finite element method and inelastic dynamic analysis have been carried out on a series of single and multi-layer AMD models. The results obtained from studies conducted in this regard show that due to the more stable behavior and interaction effects, an increase in the number of layers has a great effect on the amount of dissipated energy, loading capacity and the other behavioral characteristics.