Owing to the brittle nature of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials, the seismic behaviour of composite structures is still one of the main concerns for civil engineering applications. Furthermore, owing to the scarce experimental data available, design guidance on this topic is very limited, including in the recent European Technical Specification CEN/TS 19101:2022 and in the ASCE/SEI 74-23 Code. This paper presents an experimental campaign, conducted at the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment (ELSA) of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), in partnership with Instituto Superior Técnico and M.M. Srl, on the lateral sway behaviour of large-scale pultruded glass-FRP (GFRP) frame structures. Quasi-static tests were performed on tri-dimensional pultruded GFRP frames comprised of two longitudinal spans and two storeys, with total height of 6.75 m and length of 8.05 m. The vertical loads were simulated by precast concrete slabs, which were also used to transfer the loads from the four actuators connected to the reaction wall and the frame structures. A total of four specimens were tested, under monotonic and cyclic loading, with and without transverse bracings. The results show that well-designed frame structures made with pultruded GFRP profiles and bracings, including metallic components in connections, can withstand high seismic action demands, namely those prescribed in EN 1998-1:2024 and the Italian National Annex for the high-seismicity region of Gioia Tauro with a return period of 975 years.
GONILHA José;
RAMÔA CORREIA João;
BUTTAZZI Manuela;
CIANI Francesco;
MOLINA RUIZ Francisco Javier;
PELOSO Simone;
2025-07-14
CICE2025 – 12th International Conference on Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composites in Civil Engineering
JRC141655
978-3-032-09387-5 (online),
978-3-032-09386-8 (print),
978-3-032-09389-9,
2366-2565 (online),
2366-2557 (print),
https://link.springer.com/book/9783032093868,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC141655,
