Advanced optimization processes for the design of 3D_printed metal dampers

Over the past years, the research field concerning the passive seismic protection of buildings gained relevance more and more, due to the severe earthquakes affecting several parts of the world, often hitting very populous areas. Meanwhile, recent additive manufacturing technologies allowed the implementation of innovative metal passive protection devices (dampers), that are ground-breaking both in terms of final geometry and design approaches. This paper describes an innovative damper typology obtained through the application of additive manufacturing processes and by exploiting advanced topological and geometric optimization algorithms, which are developed within the Abaqus virtual environment. The damper is conceived starting from common geometric shapes, and then designed, through optimization processes, to obtain unconventional shapes, which can be easily obtained through 3D printing processes only, which allow to comply with objective performance in terms of strength, stiffness and dissipative capacity. Moreover, the consequent elimination of parts enables the pursuit of relevant targets, such as material savings, weight and cost reductions. The model threated in this paper, which was obtained by optimizing a spherical shape, was designed to withstand axial stress, simulating the load being transmitted across a diagonal brace of a concentrically braced frame in the event of an earthquake. The performance of the damper proves how the optimization process actually allowed to obtained pre-established and convenient decoupled levels of strength and stiffness