Precast industrial buildings in Southern Europe: loss of support at frictional beam-to-column connections under seismic actions

• Published in: Bulletin of earthquake engineering 2018, Vol.16 (1), p.259-294
• Main Authors: Demartino, Cristoforo, Vanzi, Ivo, Monti, Giorgio, Sulpizio, Concetta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aseismic buildings; Civil Engineering; Coefficient of friction; Concrete; Concrete construction; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Damping; Dynamic models; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earthquake construction; Earthquakes; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Evaluation; Frameworks; Friction; Geophysics/Geodesy; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Hydrogeology; Industrial buildings; Original Research Paper; Precast concrete; Prefabricated buildings; Reinforced concrete; Reviews; Seismic activity; Seismic design; Seismic response; Structural Geology; Two dimensional analysis; Two dimensional models
• ISSN: 1570-761X; 1573-1456
• DOI: 10.1007/s10518-017-0196-5

This paper presents the evaluation of the loss-of-support conditions in frictional beam-to-column connections of industrial precast concrete buildings under seismic actions. This type of connection is widespread throughout Southern Europe in non-seismically designed industrial precast buildings. First, geometric properties of industrial precast buildings and of the frictional beam-to-column connections, together with reference values for the friction coefficient, are reviewed. Then, earthquake time histories taken from the European Strong-Motion sets and recordings of the two major shocks of the 2012 Emilia-Romagna events are presented and discussed showing the importance of the vertical component. Two dynamic models of increasing complexity are used to ascertain loss-of-support conditions under seismic action. The first model is an elastic one, representing a single frame of the industrial buildings. Results are obtained according to: (1) 2D analyses, disregarding the time correlation between the response peaks along the horizontal and vertical directions, (2) 2D analyses taking into account time correlation, and (3) 3D analyses to evaluate also directionality effects. The second model is a 2D non-linear planar frame developed within the OpenSees framework. Results show that simplified (linear) models are a good proxy to more refined (non-linear) ones. However, one must resort to non-linear models if differential displacements between beam and column are of interest. The non-linear numerical investigations show that friction coefficient, horizontal and vertical periods and damping, and column reinforcement ratio are the key variables in estimating the loss-of-support conditions.