Seismic performance of RC frames with self-centering precast post-tensioned connections considering the effect of infill walls

Abstract

This paper presents the seismic performance evaluation of self-centering precast post-tensioned concrete (SCPPTC) frames with infill walls. The SCPPTC connection system consists of all-steel bamboo-shaped energy dissipaters (SBED) and prestressed tendons, which provide energy dissipation capacity and self-centering capability, respectively. Using modeling parameters calibrated with experimental tests, nonlinear numerical models of SBED, SCPPTC connection, infill walls, and 2D SCPPTC frames were developed in OpenSees, to compare the performance of the structures with different types of infill wall layouts. Nonlinear static pushover and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) were performed to study the effect of infill walls on the overall response of SCPPTC frames, in terms of stiffness, strength, maximum interstory drift ratio,θmax, the maximum residual interstory drift ratio, θr,max, and the normalized post-tensioned force. Using the IDA results, the study also developed fragility curves and estimated the collapse margin ratios. The results demonstrated that the shear strength of the SCPPTC frame was improved from 4.19% to 12.2%, and the initial secant stiffness of the SCPPTC frame was augmented from 22.9% to 88.3% with increasing filling rate. The totally infilled SCPPTC frame (SCPPTC-ToI) exhibits a 19.86% lower θmax than that of pilotis-infilled SCPPTC frame (SCPPTC-PiI) under rare earthquakes, and the maximum prestress of SCPPTC-ToI was also 7.14% lower than that of SCPPTC-PiI. With the increase in filling rate, θr,max increased by a maximum of 120.45%. The pronounced soft layer led to the highest failure and collapse probabilities of SCPPTC-PiI among all SCPPTC frames at the same performance level.