Abstract
Although in Europe, precast concrete buildings had been built for decades, their seismic response was poorly understood, which is reflected in ambiguous code requirements and conservative design approaches. Therefore, this structural system was the main focus of several European research projects in the past 2 decades. The University of Ljubljana was actively involved in these projects. The key results of the work performed at the University of Ljubljana are presented and discussed in this paper. The main contributions include: a) the development of a new capacity model of beam-column dowel connections, which are one of the critical parts of the RC precast structural system, b) new insight into the cyclic behaviour of fastening systems of concrete cladding panels, and new design procedures for the estimation of strength and displacement capacity of cladding fasteners, c) the development of a methodology for seismic fragility analysis of RC precast buildings, and the fragility curves of precast RC building classes, which can be used for the safety-calibration of the new design procedures of RC precast buildings, and d) the development of a relatively simple and economically attractive back-up (strengthening) system to prevent the falling of panels in case of a strong earthquake.
Highlights
In Europe, precast industrial buildings most often consist of an assemblage of cantilever columns tied together with beams
The methodology for fragility analysis was developed by Babicand Dolsek (2016) as a part of the seismic stress test, which was developed within the EU-funded project STREST. It is based on the methodology proposed by Casotto et al (2015), where the basis for the seismic fragility analysis is a building class sample
In the case of horizontal panels, the fragility parameters were reduced for approximately 10% and 30%, respectively, while the reductions amounted to about 20% and 50% when considering the masonry infills
Summary
In Europe, precast industrial buildings most often consist of an assemblage of cantilever columns tied together with beams. Before the early developments of European seismic codes, such systems received relatively little attention from the earthquake engineering community compared to the castin-place structures. This was reflected in limited knowledge about several aspects of the seismic response of precast buildings, leading to a quite conservative approach for the design (Fischinger et al, 2014). The team contributed considerable work with an emphasis on the following subjects: inelastic flexural response of slender cantilever columns, seismic behaviour of beam-to-column dowel connections, seismic behaviour of cladding-to-structure connections, seismic fragility and seismic risk of precast industrial buildings. Recent work on the following four crucial topics will be summarized: Recent Advances. . .University of Ljubljana
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