Influence of Closure External Panels Modelling on the Seismic Response of Non-Residential Precast Buildings

ABSTRACT

Following recent earthquakes, precast buildings exhibited a strong seismic vulnerability related to the presence of closure external panels. The aim of this work is to simulate the seismic response of existing single-storey precast buildings in the case of explicit modelling of external panels. The considered case studies are precast buildings representative of the Italian building stock in the 1970s and 1990s, characterised by two different cladding systems, namely, masonry infills and reinforced concrete precast panels, respectively. The explicit modelling of infills and panels, typically introduced solely as participating masses, provided insights into their actual contribution on the global structural behavior.

KEYWORDS:

• Masonry infills
• cladding panels
• panel-to-beam connection
• pushover
• Multiple-stripe analysis (MSA)
• OpenSees

Acknowledgments

This research study was developed within the activities of the Italian national project DPC-ReLUIS-EUCENTRE RINTC 2015-2021, funded by the Italian Department of Civil Protection (DPC). Note that the opinions and conclusions presented by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the funding entity. The authors are very appreciative of the constructive feedback of two anonymous reviewers, which undoubtedly led to the improvement of the original version of the manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

There is no data set supporting the findings of this study.

Additional information

Funding

This research study has been funded by the Italian Department of Civil Protection (DPC), in the framework of the national project DPC-ReLUIS-EUCENTRE RINTC 2015-2021.