Major earthquakes can cause severe damage to buildings resulting in thousands of fatalities and considerable societal disruption. An innovative earthquake resistant construction concept, the Friction Pen-dulum System (FPS), shows excellent potential for reducing earthquake damage for new and existing buildings. The technique uses steel connections to achieve a small amplitude pendulum motion of the supported structure. Research is proposed to investigate applying this earthquake resistant technique to buildings. Dynamic analyses will be used to identify the design parameters appropriate for different build-ing applications, and to investigate the performance of buildings with the FPS when subjected to different earthquake strengths.Materials which could achieve the desired dynamic coefficients of friction will be identified and tested. It is anticipated that the FPS connections could increase the earthquake resistance of buildings by 100 percent to 300 percent, without an increase in construction costs. The con-nections could also substantially increase the earthquake resistance of existing buildings with less disruption and at a lower cost than other methods. Because of the inherent simplicity, versatility, stability and durability of the FPS concept, it should become a major tool for seismic resistant design once the issues addressed in the proposed research are resolved.Commercial Applications:Research will lead to the development of building products for earth-quake resistant construction of new and existing buildings.
