In the present study, friction damper an energy dissipating passive device is explored to reduce the response of open ground storey building under lateral loading due to earthquake. This damper is installed in the selected bays of open ground storey so that the response is reduced. The masonry infill wall is macro-modelled in the form of compression only diagonal members. Three different types of bracing system were installed along with Pall friction damper – single diagonal tension – compression brace with friction damper, tension only cross brace with friction damper and chevron brace with friction damper were modelled using Wen’s plastic link element in SAP2000. G+4 storey buildings were analyzed using nonlinear time history analysis. The storey displacement and interstorey drift for all the cases were compared in the study.

Keywords : Soft storey; Pushover; Friction damper.