Abstract A comprehensive study on self-centering hybrid dampers (SCHDs) for improving seismic resilience is presented. The considered damper is composed of a pre-compressed friction spring part and a viscous fluid part. The pre-compressed friction spring part provides moderate strength, energy dissipating capacity and favorable recentering capacity, while the viscous fluid part implements additional energy dissipating capacity. The hybrid energy dissipating mechanism derives from the combination of frictional and viscous forces. The mechanical performance of friction spring and viscous damper is firstly introduced, preliminary experimental studies are conducted as validations. Then the working principle and fabrication process of the proposed damper are introduced subsequently. This is followed by cyclic tests on a SCHD specimen under multiple sinusoidal excitations. The specimen exhibits anticipated and reliable hysteretic behaviors under dynamic excitations with different frequencies. Following the experimental study, performance based seismic design is adapted to self-centering hybrid damping braced frames (SCHDFs). Nonlinear response history analyses (NRHA) are conducted to validate the practicability and adequacy of the proposed design procedure. Results of NRHA reveal that the considered system designed based on the proposed design procedure can meet both transient and residual inter-story deformation requirements. Moreover, NRHA are also performed on buckling restrained braced frames (BRBFs) and self-centering friction spring braced frames (RSBFs) designed with the same objectives. Results validate the preferable resilience of SCHDFs. The proposed system exhibits better recentering mechanism compared with BRBFs, and reduces the intense floor velocity and acceleration responses of RSBFs.