The effects of partition walls on dynamic behavior of RC buildings

Abstract

Reinforced concrete buildings constitute a signi cant part of the building stock of Turkey, and the investigation of their structural behavior is essential. This study aims to concentrate on the inclusion of in ll walls into the numerical model of the studied building. For this reason, an existing six-story reinforced concrete building is considered as a reference structure to assess di erent modeling approaches de ned for in ll walls, such as shell and strut models. Dynamic properties of structures are inherent properties which depend on their mass and rigidity. Therefore these properties contain vital parameters for the assessment of structural behavior. In this study dominant frequencies and mode shapes of the building are determined by Ambient Vibration Testing. Acceleration records gathered from each story level are analyzed in the frequency domain with Peak Picking method. Modulus of elasticity, unit weight, compressive strength, and shear strength are determined by testing the wall specimens extracted from the existing building according to European Norms. Thereby the required data for the construction of a numerical model is completed. Numerical models for the studied building are constructed with nite element method by using di erent modeling techniques for in ll walls. In the rst model, the rigidity of in ll walls is ignored as it is done in state-of-the practice. The second model is constructed by idealizing the in ll walls by shell element. The results of these two models showed that partition walls signi cantly a ect the dynamic behavior of the structures. Finally, two strut models are constructed separately as one directional single diagonal strut and two directional single diagonal struts for each in ll walls. Eigen Value analyses performed for each model to analytically determine the modal parameters. Comparison of experimental and numerical results indicated the accuracy of modeling technique.