Natural Hazards Research Summit 2024: Design and component testing of the long-stroke and rate-independent pressurized sand damper

Motivated by the recent failures and displacement limitations of existing energy dissipation devices, this projects proposes an innovative, reliable, long-stroke, low-cost energy dissipation device in which a steel sphere is moving within a cylindrical tube filled with sand that is under pressure.
One of the novel aspects of the proposed pressurized sand damper is that it dissipates energy through the hysteretic behavior of sand that can be enhanced by controlling the externally exerted pressure on the sand.

The experimental results, design, or code that support the findings of this project can be provided by the authors upon reasonable request.