Low Cost Friction Damper Solutions for Seismic Performance Enhancement of Structures

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 nonlinearity 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.