Applications of Solid Viscoelastic Coupling Dampers (VCDs) in Wind and Earthquake Sensitive Tall Buildings

Abstract

Solid Viscoelastic Coupling Dampers (VCDs) provide distributed damping that improves the dynamic performance of tall buildings for both wind-storms and earthquakes for all amplitudes of vibration. They are configured in place of typical structural members in tall buildings and therefore do not occupy any architectural space. This paper summarizes the research and development at the University of Toronto in collaboration with Nippon Steel Engineering, 3M and Kinetica over the past two decades. In addition, impact studies on buildings incorporating the VCDs are presented, consisting of a wind sensitive 66-story building in Toronto, a dual-wind and seismic performance-based design of a 4-tower development in Manila and finally a 630 meter Megatall building in Southeast Asia in a severe seismic environment. In all applications the VCDs are shown to provide significant benefits in the dynamic performance under both wind and earthquake loading in a cost-effective manner.