ABSTRACT
An innovative passive energy dissipation device has been proposed by the authors in the last few years (De Matteis et al., 2007a and 2007b; De Matteis et al., 2008a). It is based on the use of pure aluminum shear panels, which is characterized by a suitable dissipative behavior due to both the large ductility of the base material and the resisting mechanisms ruling the panel deformation under shear force. These mechanisms are strongly conditioned by possible instabili ties which may induce two different structural behaviors before and after buckling phenomena.
