Study on Seismic Performance of Steel Frame Installed New-Type Lightweight Concrete Composite Exterior Wallboard

Abstract

Given the widespread use of lightweight composite wall panels in building structures, it is crucial to comprehend their seismic performance. This paper proposes a new lightweight concrete composite exterior wallboard (LCEW) featuring truss-type thermal barrier connectors (TBCs). Through the proposed static test, the damage morphology and hysteresis curve of the specimen are obtained; the hysteresis characteristics, skeleton curve, stiffness degradation, etc., are investigated; and the damage modes are summarized. The results demonstrate that the steel frame structure can effectively adapt to the use of LCEW, resulting in an approximately 20% increase in the frame structure’s bearing capacity. Second, the wall panels with a uniform transverse arrangement of TBCs could not perform as well, as they could only delay the crack opening. To give full play to its effect, it should be combined with the direction of the main tensile zone of the wall panels. Meanwhile, the sliding gusset connections effectively released the frame action at the system level.