Seismic behavior of unitized glazed curtain walls in a low-damage structural steel building

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Conference Contributions - Published
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Date
2020
Authors
Chen C
Xiang P
Jia L-J
Zhao X
Dhakal R
MacRae G
Bhatta J
Clifton C
Dhakal, Rajesh
Abstract

In reconnaissance reports on some recent large earthquakes, it is reported that economic losses due to non-structural elements considerably exceed those related to earthquake-induced structural damage. Unitized Glazed Curtain Walls (UGCWs) which have been increasingly used for facades in modern buildings play an important role. Research on seismic performance evaluation of UGCWs is limited. There is possibility of cosmetic and weather tightness failures but not life-threatening for seismic risk of UGCWs. Deformation behavior of UGCWs depends on factors such as the width of clearance between glass panels and aluminium frames, gasket friction and degradation of structural glazing tapes. These factors should be calibrated through dynamic tests. Specifically, corners of UGCWs are more vulnerable under seismic excitations, while limited studies have been conducted to evaluate seismic behavior of corners of UGCWs, which is in lack of information. This study aims to investigate in-plane and out-of-plane deformation behaviour of UGCWs employing low-damage connection details. The overall deformation behavior of UGCW system is characterized, and specifically the seismic behavior at the low-damage corner condition is discussed. Bidirectional shaking table tests will be conducted at the International joint research Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering (ILEE) facilities, Shanghai, this year. The specimen is a 9 m tall three-storey steel building equipped with UGCWs on the top two floors at the opposite two corners. The UGCWs configuration includes three side-by-side primary panels in the longitudinal direction and two adjacent panels in the transverse direction at the corner of each floor. Displacement transducers such as Linear Variable Differential Transformers LVDTs as well as high-resolution cameras will be employed to record or capture deformation behavior of UGCWs within stack joints and hooks. It is theoretically shown that the connection details of UGCWs can provide low-damage behavior under the maximum allowable 3.4% inter-storey drift of the steel building. Additionally, simplified calculation model of UGCWs without and with shear keys are introduced in this paper, and a method is suggested for prediction of ultimate drift capacity of full-size UGCWs based on some assumptions. This calculation method of the deformation of UGCWs can help improve decision making regarding resilient seismic retrofit options of UGCWs.

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Citation
Chen C, Xiang P, Jia L-J, Zhao X, Dhakal R, MacRae G, Bhatta J, Clifton C (2020). Seismic behavior of unitized glazed curtain walls in a low-damage structural steel building. Sendai, Japan: 17th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (17WCEE). 27/09/2021-02/10/2021.
Keywords
non-structural elements, glazed curtain walls, low-damage, seismic performance, inter-story drift
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ANZSRC fields of research
Fields of Research::40 - Engineering::4005 - Civil engineering
Fields of Research::40 - Engineering::4005 - Civil engineering::400506 - Earthquake engineering
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