Smart materials such as shape memory alloys (SMAs) are recently being used in earthquake engineering applications to control the response of structures. In this paper, a shape-memory alloy damper device made up of austenite wires (e.g. Nickel Titanium wires) is used as a passive energy absorber. NiTi wires are very attractive for passive vibration control as they have a pseudo-elastic property and can sustain large amounts (upto 10% strain) of inelastic deformation. Moreover, in contrast to regular metallic materials they can recover that deformation. The damper device is designed, fabricated and tested. Validity study is made using a thermo-mechanical model of SMA taking into account the residual martensite accumulation irreversibly due to cyclic forward/reverse martensitic transformation. Further an analytical study of a supporting steel structure of dump tanks with and without SMA dampers subjected to design wave earthquake loading is carried out. Performance of the structure with SMA dampers is compared with that of the same structure with yielding dampers.

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The current Leak Before Break (LBB) assessment is based primarily on the monotonic fracture tearing instability. In it the maximum design accident load is compared with the fracture-tearing resistance load. The effect of cyclic loading has generally not been considered in the fracture assessment of nuclear power plant piping. It is a well-known fact that the reversible cyclic loading decreases the fracture resistance of the material, which leads to increased crack growth. Indian nuclear power reactors consider Operational-Basis-Earthquake (OBE) and Safe-Shutdown-Earthquake (SSE) event in the design of various structures, systems and components. Keeping this in view a series of cyclic tearing test have been conducted on straight pipes, made of ASTM SA333 Gr.6 carbon steel. This is the material of primary heat transport (PHT) piping material of Indian Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). In this series 13 tests have been carried out on circumferentially through wall cracked seamless and circumferential seam welded straight pipes under reversible cyclic bending loading. All the tests have been conducted under quasi-static i.e. slow loading rates and the dynamic effect is not considered. The cyclic test results have been compared with the corresponding monotonic pipe fracture test results. These test results and its comparison with corresponding monotonic tearing clearly illustrates the need of addressing the reduction in apparent fracture toughness of material under reversible cyclic loading and safe number of load cycles in the LBB assessment.

This study uses the pseudoelastic properties of Ni–Ti shape memory alloy wires for attenuation of the seismic response of a steel structure and evaluates its effectiveness and applicability in seismic response control. In this paper, shake table tests, carried out on a model of a steel structure with and without wire-based shape memory alloy dampers, are discussed in detail. Shake table tests, comprised of free vibration tests and spectrum compatible time history tests, were carried out. The former were used for the evaluation of the frequency and damping, and the later were used to prove the efficacy of the shape memory alloy dampers. Further analytical simulations are carried out using detailed time history analysis utilizing a thermomechanical model of an SMA and taking into account the residual martensite accumulation, which is irreversibly due to cyclic forward/reverse martensitic transformation. Moreover, a simple iterative response spectrum (IRS) method with equivalent damping and stiffness is also used to evaluate the response of the structure with SMA dampers, and it is proved that the method can be conservatively used by designers.

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