For the last several years, Corry Rubber Corporation has been working with the University of Virginia Civil Engineering Department developing next generation structural dampers. These dampers can be used in buildings and other large structures to protect them from wind and seismic events. The structural dampers, named superelastic viscous dampers (SVD) are hybrid dampers which incorporate shape memory alloy (SMA) elements for recentering capability and viscoelastic (VE) elastomer for damping. The VE elastomer is a heavily damped butyl compound developed by Corry Rubber Corporation. Elements of the damper were designed by O.E. Ozbulut (University of Virginia), R.J. Michael (Corry Rubber Corporation) and B. Silwal (University of Virginia).
Results of the work have been published extensively. A recent publication “Performance Evaluations of Superelastic Viscous Dampers Considering Temperature Effects” was resently presented at the 16th World Conference on Earthquake, 16WCEE 2017 in Santiago, Chile and again in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
