Media Release: International researchers visit New Zealand to study earthquake risk reduction
May 8, 2019
QuakeCoRE Rebid Workshops
May 22, 2019
10 am Friday 14 June
| Rick Henry (University of Auckland)
Geoff Rodgers (University of Canterbury) Yiqiu Lu (University of Auckland) |
Low-damage Concrete Buildings: Preliminary outcomes from the QuakeCoRE-ILEE test
Abstract
It’s not every day that engineers get to subject a full scale building to simulated earthquakes. Such tests are costly and require experimental facilities only available in a few countries worldwide. However, the insights gained from testing a full building system far exceed that of conventional components tests used to develop new designs and allow for a proper validation of structural design practice. New Zealand has been at the forefront of implementation of low-damage concrete buildings, many of which utilise post-tensioned rocking walls. In order to test if such low-damage systems will achieve the desired performance shake-table testing was conducted on a full-scale low-damage concrete wall building implementing state-of-art design concepts. The test utilised the multi-functional shake table array at Tongji University in Shanghai, one of the largest shake table facilities in the world. The test was a rare opportunity for New Zealand engineers to evaluate systems that are currently in use and rather than having to wait for the next real earthquake to see if they stack up.
The 2-storey test building was designed with post-tensioned (PT) walls that provide the primary lateral-load resistance in both directions and a frame that utilised slotted beam connections. A number of alternative energy dissipation devices were also installed at wall base or/and beam-column joints of the building. The building was subjected to 39 tests with a range of intensity ground motions, incorporating both unidirectional and bi-directional testing on the structure with different combinations of wall strength and energy dissipating devices. Overall, the building performed extremely well during the intense series of tests, providing confidence the new low-damage concrete buildings are an excellent low-damage building solution.
The overall research programme will be presented, including key results from the test as well as lessons for conducting such large-scale collaborative tests.
For details on how to join the seminar – return to the 2019 Seminar series home page link
Zoom link
