Low Cost Friction Damper Solutions for Seismic Performance Enhancement of Structures
Radha Krishna Mallik1, Gokarna Bahadur Motra1, Krishna Shrestha2,3,*
1 Department of Civil Engineering, Institute of Engineering Pulchowk Campus, Tribhuvan University, Lalitpur, 44700, Nepal
2 Centre for Infrastructure Engineering, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia
3 Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou, 350000, China
* Corresponding Author: Krishna Shrestha. Email: 
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Vibration Control, Dampers and Structural Health Monitoring)
Structural Durability & Health Monitoring https://doi.org/10.32604/sdhm.2025.075535
Received 03 November 2025; Accepted 19 December 2025; Published online 06 January 2026
Abstract
The study proposes a low-cost friction damper designed to enhance the seismic performance of buildings, particularly in regions where existing structures lack adequate seismic resistance and conventional friction dampers are cost-prohibitive or require specialized fabrication. Friction dampers are displacement-controlled devices that dissipate energy through constant slip-force action and relative displacement between attachment points, typically ensuring elastic structural behavior under Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) demands and controlled yielding under Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) conditions. To address limitations in current practice, the proposed device integrates the damping mechanism of vehicle leaf-spring suspension systems with rotational plate friction interfaces activated through bolt pretension, enabling fabrication from commonly available structural components. The device’s energy dissipation arises from friction between leaf-spring plates, friction across rotational plates, and deformation of the leaf springs, each of which is examined to characterize overall behavior. Numerical modeling incorporating contact non-linearity verifies the force–deformation response, and the equivalent viscous damping ratio is estimated to evaluate performance. Results demonstrate that the proposed Leaf Spring–Rotational Plate (LSRP) friction damper provides substantial energy dissipation capacity, offering a practical and affordable seismic retrofit solution for buildings not originally designed for lateral loads. Comparison between theoretical predictions and numerical simulations confirms the accuracy of the proposed formulation in capturing the damper’s hysteretic behavior, establishing a foundation for future investigation of its performance across structures with varying dynamic characteristics.
Keywords
Friction damper; strengthening; energy dissipation by friction; external leaf spring; rotational sliding plates; contact non-linearity numerical model; equivalent viscous damping ratio
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