Seismic accelerations in architectural precast concrete cladding

Abstract

Architectural precast concrete (APC) cladding is a type of building facade broadly used worldwide. It is composed of an array of concrete panels attached to the building structural system with steel connections. During earthquakes, the APC system can be damaged both by excessive drifts and accelerations. While research on drift-compatibility has been performed in recent years, to the author’s knowledge there are limited studies aimed to determining the level of seismic forces in APC cladding panels and connections. However, these forces could be larger than anticipated since this system has low natural frequencies due to its large mass and low stiffness in the out-of-plane direction.This paper presents an experimental and numerical study of the seismic accelerations developed in APC cladding panels installed on a building. The design limits provided by the code for ductile and brittle elements of the cladding system indicate that the code is able to meet the desired performance criteria both in case of service and design level motions. However, the satisfactory results obtained for design level earthquakes are due to the combination of significant errors in the prediction of the component and structure amplification factors.