A research study on a damped bracing system incorporating pressurized silicone fluid viscous devices for seismic protection
of frame structures is presented in this paper. This technology features an inverse-chevron brace configuration, where a pair of interfaced
devices are placed, parallel with the floor-beam axis, at the tip end of each couple of supporting steel braces. The experimental section of
this study consisted of a pseudodynamic testing campaign on a 2:3-scale three-story steel frame and a full-scale three-story reinforced
concrete frame seismically retrofitted by the technology considered. Test results were elaborated to evaluate: the improvement of seismic
response of both structures after retrofit, also assessed through a formal performance-based evaluation analysis; the capabilities of the
assumed analytical and numerical models in reproducing the observed structural response; and the feasibility of a methodology previously
formulated to select the damping coefficient of fluid viscous devices, herein implemented with further details for practical use. This
methodology was applied to the design of the protection systems of the two test structures, and checked by comparing the target and
experimentally obtained values of the governing energy-ratio coefficients.
