The Influence of Non-structural Exterior Wall on the Structural Resistance of RC Building Frames Against Seismic and Progressive Collapse Failure

Abstract

Because of environmental and architectural considerations, the partially infilled exterior walls of RC condominium buildings in Taiwan were used to cast monolithically with surrounding beams and/or columns. Among those various exterior walls, the parapet type is the more common one. Thus, the influence of its mechanical properties on the structural resistance of RC building frames against seismic and progressive collapse failure was investigated in this study. From the nonlinear static pushover and pushdown analyses of seven RC building frames, the seismic and column-loss resistances with and without the parapet exterior walls were compared. The analysis results revealed that with the parapet exterior walls, both the horizontal seismic resistance and progressive collapse resistance under column loss could be increased at the expense of reduced ductility. However, the mechanical influence of the parapet exterior walls decreased with increased span, number of stories, and seismic design coefficient of the RC building frames.KeywordsParapet exterior wallRC building frameSeismic resistanceProgressive collapse resistance