A novel yielding steel damper for efficient seismic protection of structures is presented. The proposed multiple bean damper (MBD), featured by cellular bean-shaped fuses welded around an inner shaft, is suitably designed to enhance energy dissipation capacity through flexural and axial deformations of the beans, while maintaining adjustability to different seismic demands. Hysteretic behavior is preliminarily studied by experimental tests conducted on three ad-hoc developed full-scale prototypes with differing geometric parameters under cyclic loading. Failure modes, strength, stiffness, energy dissipation capacity, equivalent damping ratio, and effective stiffness are carefully evaluated. Subsequently, finite element (FE) simulation is performed for response validation and for drawing general design guidelines beyond the range of experimentally investigated parameters. A comprehensive parametric analysis is conducted to assess the influence of four key variables (plate thickness, bean height, number of beans, and bean length) on the hysteretic behavior of the MBDs. Analytical equations are derived for yield force and elastic stiffness, with design relationships being formulated for both internal and external components. The most significant design parameters are found to be the bean thickness and height. An inverse relationship is observed between height and both strength and stiffness properties, while thickness demonstrated a proportional relationship. Nonlinear interaction is observed between height and thickness variables, whereas bean count exhibited linear correlation. Experimental and numerical results reveal that the proposed device is versatile and has stable hysteretic behavior. Practical guidelines and recommendations are finally provided, based on capacity design principles and fitting predictive equations, which can be used for efficient design of structures equipped with MBDs within a performance-based seismic design framework. • Novel Multiple Bean Damper (MBD) developed for seismic energy dissipation • Full-scale cyclic tests validate stable hysteretic behavior of MBD prototypes • Parametric study reveals key geometric effects on strength and stiffness • Analytical design equations proposed for yield force and elastic stiffness • Practical guidelines provided for performance-based seismic design with MBDs
Nouri et al. (Sun,) studied this question.