Modelling of highly-damped composite floor beams with constrained elastomer layers

Floor vibrations caused by human activities is an issue to consider mainly caused by new construction tendencies towards longer, lighter and less damped composite floor systems. Furthermore, the removal of full height partitions and heavy furniture elements have also contributed to reduce both, mass and damping, increasing the potential for annoying floor vibration. As a result, Vibration Serviceability Limit State has become the main limit state to overcome at the design stage. The response of dynamically loaded structures is especially dependable on structures dissipation capacity, commonly modelled as structural damping. This inverse relation between damping and dynamic response behaves exponentially. That is why increasing the structural damping in low damped structures from the design stage, is the most efficient way to face the vibration issue. This is the main idea behind the concept of Damping-Based Design. In this paper, a highly-damped composite floor system is achieved through constraining an elastomer sandwiched layer between the concrete slab and the steel beam. Therefore, additional energy dissipation is provided through viscoelastic shear deformation between concrete and steel, increasing the overall damping of the structure, and thus, enhancing its dynamic response. In this context, the authors have developed a simplified and engineering-based FE model, in a fully-extended and commercial software for structural analysis as SOFiSTiK. Hence, a new simple engineering approach has been developed for easily assessing the enhanced performance of these systems, contrasting the limited results provided by other authors about this topic.The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the project SEED-SD (RTI2018-099639-B-I00). Carlos M. C. Renedo would like to thank Universidad Politécnica de Madrid for the financial support through a PhD research grant. Finally, Iván M. Díaz would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by Fundación José Entrecanales Ibarra to carry out a Research Stay at University of Exeter