Experimental and numerical study on seismic performance of semi-rigid steel frame infilled with prefabricated damping wall panels

Abstract

This study proposes an innovative prefabricated damping wall panels infill for semi-rigid connected steel frame to release adverse infill-frame interaction. The comparative experimental studies of three specimens under quasi-static cyclic test are designed and performed, one of which is a bare semi-rigid steel frame, one is a common infill semi-rigid steel frame, and the other is a prefabricated damping wall panels infill semi-rigid steel frame. Experimental results show that the severe crack development and obvious out-of-plane displacement appear on the common infill, showing its detrimental infill-frame interaction. However, the developed infill system can considerably release adverse infill-frame interaction and provide adequate out-of-plane resistance, so that the novel infill is significantly undamaged and no visible out-of-plane displacement is observed in each wall panel as interstory drift up to 3.33%. Additionally, the developed infill system performs similar seismic responses with the bare frame, in terms of hysteretic response, loading capacity degradation, and displacement ductility. Moreover, the novel infill can improve about 23.3% additional energy dissipation capacity of the steel frame, and release the stress of the columns. Furthermore, the experimental and numerical results are in good agreement. The hysteretic responses and deformation modes of the presented novel system in the experiment are well-matched with the numerical simulation results, which validates the rationality and accuracy of the pseudo-static test and feasibility of the novel infill system to release adverse infill-frame interaction. The numerical results of the rigid steel frame further confirm the effectiveness of the proposed damping wall panels for both semi-rigid steel frames and rigid steel frames. As a result, it can be proved in this study that the innovative infill system can release adverse infill-frame interaction to perform as a bare steel frame with better energy dissipation capacity.