Abstract:
Implementation of low-damage concrete buildings has highlighted a number of challenges when considering the response of the entire building, including detailing for displacement compatibility during seismic response. In order to provide essential evidence to support the development of lowdamage concrete structures, a system level shake-table test of a full-scale low-damage concrete wall building implementing state-of-art design concepts was conducted on the multi-functional shaketable array at Tongji University as part of an international collaborative project. The test building was designed to represent systems implemented in New Zealand buildings and used post-tensioned (PT) precast concrete walls and precast concrete frames with slotted beam connections. Different floor systems and wall-to-floor connections were incorporated to investigate alternative design concepts and detailing. A number of alternative energy dissipation devices were located at the wall base and beam-column joints, including yielding steel fuses, lead-extrusion dampers, and non-linear viscous fluid dampers. The building was subjected to approximately 40 separate earthquake ground motions, with different combinations of wall strength, energy dissipating elements, shaking direction, and ground motions. Overall, the building performance was excellent, sustaining repeated tests at both design and maximum consider earthquake intensities with only minor damage to the wall toes and minor cracking to the floor slabs. The test is of a scale not common in a New Zealand context and has provided a rich dataset to verify design procedures, detailing practice, and numerical models.