Design and optimisation of damped cable system characteristics to suit application. Report to European Commission No. EVG1-CT-1999-00013 SPIDER/1.1/UD/SSO/01/ VF-C, Deliverable No. 1, Research and Technological Development Project SPIDER

The activities carried out by Udine University within Work-package nr. 1 (“Identification of structural typologies and of the requested damper/cable system characteristics”), for which it has had the role of task leader, consisted of the following main aspects: • elaboration of a finite element calculus code to model seismic response of frame and dual structures, incorporating damped cable (DC) protective system; • development of a wide numerical enquiry by means of this code, with the view of parametrically analysing the effects of the main mechanical quantities and design assumptions on performance of DC technology, as well as of identifying the structural typologies for which it can provide significant advantages (already assessing possible limitations and problems for practical implementation of the protective strategy); • location of preferable ranges of variation of the most critical mechanical parameters, by which to provide useful information for the construction of prototypes to be tested within Work-package nr. 2; • development of a preliminary numerical analysis on the mock-up building to be tested within Work-package nr. 7, so as to pre-evaluate dimensions and performance features of the system to be applied for that experimental campaign. The outcome of this activities is summed up in sections 1 through 4, enclosed to this report.