Repeatability and High-Speed Validation of Supplemental Lead-Extrusion Energy Dissipation Devices

Recent research on supplemental damping enabling low to no damage structures has led to new devices, such as lead-extrusion-based high force-to-volume (HF2V) devices. They provide significant energy dissipation and force capacity in a small volume, enabling a range of novel low to no damage connections and systems. However, despite several research study tests and a limited range of velocity testing, they have never been tested across a realistic velocity range or for robustness to manufacture and design across several devices. These issues are hurdles that limit professional design uptake and add uncertainty and risk to their use in design. To address them, a serious damage-free dissipation device characterise its force capacity and variability due to manufacture (repeatable quasistatic force) and velocity input (peak force to connections). These outcomes are critical to size all the connections and foundations for the resultant demands and ensure robust, effective design. This manuscript presents the quasistatic testing of 96 devices designed for the same quasistatic force capacity, as well as high-speed prototype testing at velocities up to 200 mm/sec. Quasistatic tests show device forces vary with standard deviation, σ < 6.2% of design and average force. Peak input velocities of ∼200 mm/s produced peak resistive forces of ∼350 kN and increasingly weak velocity dependence as device input velocity increased, which is an advantage as it limits large demand forces to connecting elements and surrounding structure if larger than expected response velocities occur. Overall, the devices show stable hysteretic performance, with slight force reduction during high-speed testing due to heat build-up and softening of the lead working material. This testing quantified important HF2V device dynamics and robustness for designers and is an important step towards design uptake.