Precast RC buildings: what is wrong with horizontal cladding panels?

The influence of cladding panels on the seismic behaviour of precast structures has for a long time been neglected, on the grounds that they were intended as non-structural elements and, as such, not expected to affect the global behaviour of the buildings. Increasing evidence from past earthquakes led to the conclusion that those assumptions did not held true and that new rules to account for the presence of claddings in the design of the buildings, as well as rules for the design of their connections were badly needed. The problem was addressed by means of the research project SAFECLADDING. The projects included an extensive experimental campaign, in which the interaction of the claddings with the prefabricated structure was studied in potentially all possible configurations. The evidence arising from those tests resulted into a set of guidelines, which in turn inspired the standard ISO22502:2020 for the simplified design of reinforced concrete structures with cladding panels and their connections. Horizontal cladding panels are used much more often because of their architectural flexibility, but their behaviour is much more complex than that of vertical panels. Some design assumptions are often difficult to implement in practice, mainly due to their more complex interaction. Therefore, what can be adopted for vertical panels may be difficult or even impossible to adopt for horizontal panel.

LAMPERTI TORNAGHI Marco;  SCALBI Agnese;  NEGRO Paolo; 

2022-08-08

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

JRC126621

0141-0296 (online),   

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2022.114456,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC126621,   

10.1016/j.engstruct.2022.114456 (online),