A negative stiffness device (NSD) has been proposed as an innovative way for seismic protection of structures. It was shown both numerically and experimentally to improve the performance of inelastic structures when it is appropriately designed for the given application. In order to systematically evaluate the effects of a NSD, dimensional analysis is used in this study to quantify the structural responses as the function of input ground motion characteristics, model parameters of structure and NSD, as well as supplemental damping. To facilitate this, a simplified yet parameterized numerical model is first proposed to mimic the observed responses of the tested prototype NSD. The dimensional analysis is then conducted on a single degree of freedom (SDOF) system equipped with both a NSD and a nonlinear damper. By comparing the dimensionless structural responses for the cases of (1) inelastic structure only, (2) inelastic structure with nonlinear damper, and (3) inelastic structure with both nonlinear damper and NSD when subject to various pulse type motions, the effectiveness of a NSD is investigated thoroughly. Finally, the optimal ranges of NSD model parameters are also identified.
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