Smart buildings and viscous dampers—a design engineer's perspective

The use of viscous dampers providing high damping levels within buildings is a relatively new application for a well‐established and proven technology. The first modern use of damping technology in structural engineering occurred in the 1990s and has become increasingly popular today. Seminal research using viscous dampers to improve a structure's seismic response took place at the Multidisciplinary Center for Extreme Events Research (MCEER) at the State of New York at Buffalo in the early 1990s. This research documented excellent improvements in seismic capacity by simply adding dampers. Within a few years, highly effective computers and structural analysis/design software would arrive in the marketplace to properly model optimized damper designs. At this time, dampers began to be implemented on buildings and bridges, worldwide.