Numerical evaluation of seismic response of buildings equipped with propped rocking wall systems

This paper presents experimental validation of the numerical modeling and proposed design procedure of a newly proposed seismic force-resisting system named Propped Rocking Walls (PRW) through a 1:3 scale earthquake simulator testing program conducted at University at Buffalo. Propped rocking wall is a seismic force-resisting system that combines unbonded post-tensioned (PT) concrete walls with passive supplemental damping devices. The shake table testing program was aimed at validating the Direct Displacement-Based Design (DDBD) procedure developed for buildings that would incorporate PRWs as their primary earthquake-resistant solution. Another goal of this experimental study was to further understand the seismic response characteristics of the proposed PRW system. A numerical modeling of the test specimen was then developed and dynamic response of the model was compared with shake table test results. Presented in this paper are also results from Nonlinear Response History Analyses (NRHA) conducted on the full-scale prototype PRW system under consideration, for different levels of seismic hazard. The objective of this study was to evaluate the seismic response of the prototype system with respect to the predefined performance objectives for which the system was designed for, using the proposed DDBD procedure.