Low-Damage Concrete Wall Buildings: Do expectations meet reality?

Abstract

New Zealand has been at the forefront of implementation of low-damage concrete buildings, many of which utilise post-tensioned rocking walls. In order to test if such low-damage systems will achieve the desired performance shake-table testing was conducted on a full-scale lowdamage concrete wall building implementing state-of-art design concepts. The test utilised the multi-functional shake table array at Tongji University in Shanghai, one of the largest shake table facilities in the world. The test building was designed to represent the systems and detailing implemented in New Zealand buildings based on discussions and workshops with an industry advisory group. The building was subjected to 39 tests with a range of intensity ground motions, incorporating both unidirectional and bi-directional testing on the structure with different combinations of wall strength and energy dissipating devices. The building performed extremely well during the intense series of tests, providing confidence the new low-damage concrete buildings are an excellent low-damage building solution. The building exhibited only minor damage, with distributed cracking in the floors and cosmetic spalling in the wall toes that could be easily repaired.