Hysteretic Behavior of a Multifunctional Phased Self-Adaptive Rotational Friction Damper

A novel self-adaptive damper with load bearing, energy dissipation, and self-centering phased adaption performance, known as the “multifunctional phased self-adaptive rotational friction” (MFPSA-RF) damper, is proposed based on the multilevel seismic concept. This innovative damper consists of multiple MFPSA-RF joints and several corresponding connecting plates. Each MFPSA-RF joint comprises three friction plates clamped together by high-strength bolts with prestressed combined disc springs. The friction plates are specifically combined with two types of friction surfaces—planar and wedge-shaped—to enable the damper to exhibit graded self-adaptive behavior. The working mechanism of the damper is elucidated, and a theoretical analysis model is developed to describe its force–displacement relationship. Experimental studies on the damper components and the whole damper were carried out to test its hysteretic behavior and further validated the theoretical analysis model of the MFPSA-RF damper. The results demonstrated that the MFPSA-RF damper exhibits prominent adaptive performance with MFPSA performance, characterized by high stiffness in small deformations, stable energy dissipation in medium deformations, and excellent self-centering capability in large deformations. Furthermore, a mathematical hysteretic model based on the Bouc–Wen model is developed to capture the MFPSA characteristic, and the modified model’s predicted hysteretic behavior aligns well with the experimental results.