In order to improve the seismic performance of high-rise buildings, a friction damper installation scheme was proposed in the paper. Through numerical simulation and experimental testing, the vibration reduction effect was compared and verified. Herringbone structure was applied to install friction damper in the bearing wall. Based on this vibration reduction scheme, the finite element model of high-rise building was established, and the influence of damper on the modal characteristics of building frame was analyzed. It can be known that the damper has little influence on the natural frequency, but has a great influence on the amplitude range of the excitation response. In the finite element model, two kinds of seismic waves were applied, the strength and dynamic response was simulated and calculated, and the maximum deformation and stress results were obtained. Compared with the initial model, it can be known that the more intense the vibration is, the more obvious the damping effect of the damper is. A seismic excitation simulation system based on acceleration sensor detection is designed and applied to the wall vibration test. The results show that the maximum vibration acceleration of the measured point is reduced by 26.3 % by the damper, and the stable seismic effect can still be maintained during the impact of extension. Compared with the traditional hardness and volume reinforcement scheme, the friction damper can reduce the production cost and improve the adaptability to seismic wave excitation, which provides an important basis for seismic research in other fields.