Dynamic testing of a four-storey building with reinforced concrete and unreinforced masonry walls: prediction, test results and data set

• Published in: Bulletin of earthquake engineering Vol. 13; no. 10; pp. 3015 - 3064
• Main Authors: Beyer, K., Tondelli, M., Petry, S., Peloso, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.10.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acceleration; Building codes; Buildings; Civil Engineering; Construction; Damage; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earthquakes; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Geophysics/Geodesy; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Hydrogeology; Instrumentation; Masonry; Mathematical models; Original Research Paper; Reinforced concrete; Seismic activity; Seismic design; Seismic engineering; Structural engineering; Structural Geology; Walls; Reinforced concrete wall; Shake-table test; Unreinforced masonry wall; Mixed structure
• ISSN: 1570-761X; 1573-1456
• DOI: 10.1007/s10518-015-9752-z

This paper presents the results of a series of shake-table tests on a half-scale, four-storey building with reinforced concrete and unreinforced masonry walls. Due to the lack of reference tests, the seismic behaviour of such mixed structures is poorly understood. The test unit was subjected to several runs of increasing intensity yielding performance states between minor damage and near collapse. Before the test, the expected peak table accelerations leading to different limit states were estimated using the capacity spectrum method, and the predicted values corresponded rather well to actual sustained accelerations. Next to these analyses, the paper describes the test unit, instrumentation and input motion, and comments on the response of the mixed structure in terms of damage evolution and global response quantities, such as force–displacement response and drift and acceleration profiles. The raw and post-processed data sets are made publically available, and all relevant information with regard to data organisation and post-processing procedure is described in an appendix to this paper. The test serves therefore as a benchmark for the validation of numerical models of such mixed structures. The project aims at providing a foundation for the development of seismic design and assessment methods of mixed structures, which are currently not covered by structural codes, including Eurocode 8.