Design and experimental characterization of a novel Lead Damper for seismic protection of buildings

The study presents an experimental assessment of an emerging energy dissipation device, namely Lead Damper (LED), which provides a resistive force by the friction created between a lead core and a shaft. Tests are performed according to the European standard EN 15129. The damper shows a rigid-plastic behavior without strength degradation regardless of the imposed deflection; the shape of the hysteresis loops is essentially rectangular, resulting in an effective damping of 0.55; the device is able to sustain multiple cycles of motion at the basic design earthquake displacement, providing maintenance-free operation even in presence of repeated ground shakes.