Analysis of the influence of cladding panels in the seismic behaviour of a PRC industrial building

Abstract

Recent reports on the latest earthquakes in Italy and Turkey have highlighted some critical problems in the connections of cladding panels on industrial precast reinforced concrete (PRC) structures. The panel connections did not perform as expected, causing non-structural damages and, in most cases, leading to the panels overturning. The damage and collapse of these elements may result in significant losses of human lives and large socio-economic impacts due to business interruption. Despite being demonstrated that cladding panels can have a significant contribution on seismic response, these elements are often considered as non-structural, ignoring the interaction with the RC frame, and considering that they do not influence the seismic behaviour. Making use of a simplified macro element, this study assesses the seismic capacity of commonly employed claddings-to-structure connections, as well as the interaction of the cladding panels with the PRC industrial buildings. The analyses were carried out considering a PRC building representative of the Portuguese industrial park, studied with and without cladding panels. The seismic behaviour of the structure are assess considering both non-linear static and dynamic procedures.