Experimental seismic performance evaluation of modular lightweight steel buildings within the ELISSA project

Abstract

Summary Lightweight steel buildings made up by cold‐formed steel (CFS) members as main structural components are growing in popularity in the most industrialized countries. Cold‐formed steel buildings start to be adopted also in seismic regions thanks to their efficient fabrication, reduced site work, short time of construction, and good structural performance. However, the dynamic properties and full seismic performance of CFS buildings completed with finishing is an open question. This paper attempts to provide a contribution to this research question, by a full experimental campaign aiming at investigating the dynamic properties of a modular building developed within the “Energy efficient LIghtweight Sustainable SAfe steel construction” (ELISSA) research project. The work shows the results of an international collaboration between universities and industrial partners aimed at developing a CFS prefabricated dry construction system with improved antiseismic properties and energy performance. This work will discuss the design of the modular building named ELISSA house, the experimental investigation going from small‐scale tests of components, to static tests of shear walls, up to shake table tests of a 2‐storey mock‐up building. It will analyze the dynamic properties of the structural system compared to the building completed with all the finishing, focusing on fundamental period of vibration, damping ratio, building drift, and observed damage.

Experimental investigation into the performance of cold‐formed steel walls sheathed with OSB and cement‐based panels

“…This mechanism is clearly due to the loading set up. Indeed, while in previous research [4,[7][8][9] the in plane load is applied to CFS walls through a spreading beam located on the top of the CFS walls, in the presented research, since the BS EN 594 has been followed, no spreading beam has been included. The results demonstrate that, despite the BS EN 594 is required in UK to be followed for the testing of CFS walls, appropriate improvement of the test set up is required to be able to capture the full shear capacity of CFS walls sheathed with OSB.…”

The environmental impacts of an innovative modular lightweight steel system: The Elissa case

“…The first four days were used for preparing the installation of the ground floor to the shaking table. This part was delicate for this specific cases, since the ELISSA mock up needed to be tested on shaking table (Landolfo et al 2018) under seismic loading. The mock up, as indicated in Section 2 has plan dimensions of 4.5 x 2.5m, while the shaking table had dimensions of 3x3m.…”

Effect of Architectural Non-Structural Components on Lateral Behaviour of CFS Structures: Shake-Table Tests and Numerical Modelling

“…The B and C wall Configurations were representative of the shear walls used in the B and C mock-up Configurations, respectively. More details about the research project are available in Landolfo et al [19].…”