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Experimental response of a substandard RC frame building retrofitted with GFRP sheets and slab-weakening subjected to earthquake motions

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Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study on the seismic response of a 2/5 scale, 3-storey, 2-bays non-ductile reinforced concrete frame building retrofitted with glass fibre reinforced polymer sheets and weakening of the floor slab around the strengthened beam hinge region, following a partial retrofit strategy involving an upgrade of the exterior beam column (b-c) joints only. The research comprised two uni-directional shake-table experiments, including a different earthquake record each, with similar PGA, but different duration and frequency content. During the short-duration test, the specimen experienced limited inter-storey drift ratios (less than 0.6%) and presented no visible damage. During the long-duration test, instead, the specimen undertook large inter-storey drifts ratios, particularly in the first storey (3.7%), and showed large cracking in the exterior beams and crushing of the concrete at both ends of the central columns. An analysis of the spectrograms of the input and top-storey displacement motions shows that the large-amplitude response of the specimen during the long-duration test was apparently due to resonance. It was concluded that the proposed retrofit strategy was able to attain, under an adverse scenario with large inter-storey drift demands, the fundamental objectives of: (a) inverting the hierarchy of strengths and sequence of events in the critically vulnerable exterior b-c joints, relocating the damage from the panel zone into the beams at the weakened part of the slab; and (b) improving the global inelastic mechanism of the structure by shifting it from brittle/unstable to ductile/stable.

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Availability of data and materials

The raw data gathered during the tests is available upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) through the Research Project “Retrofit Solutions for New Zealand Multi-Storey Buildings” (FRST Contract UOAX0411). The work of all the technical stuff of the Structures Laboratory of the University of Canterbury is much appreciated; in particular, the technical support of Mosese Fifita is gratefully recognized. The help of Weng Kam and Sahin Tasligedik for the execution of the tests is acknowledged. Part of this work was preliminary presented at the 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 2017, paper 2598.

Funding

This work was part of the project “Retrofit Solutions for New Zealand Multi-Storey Buildings”, funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST), New Zealand, under the contract UOAX041.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Steel and Timber Structures, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

    Patricio Quintana Gallo

  2. Ramboll UK Limited, London, UK

    Umut Akguzel

  3. Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Athol J. Carr

  4. Department of Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Stefano Pampanin

Authors
  1. Patricio Quintana Gallo
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  2. Umut Akguzel
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  4. Stefano Pampanin
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Contributions

P. Quintana Gallo: Conceptualization, Investigation, Project administration, Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing—Original Draft, Visualization. U. Akguzel: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing—Review & Editing, Visualization. A. Carr: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing—Review & Editing. S. Pampanin: Conceptualization, Supervision, Funding Acquisition, Writing—Review & Editing.

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Correspondence to Patricio Quintana Gallo.

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Quintana Gallo, P., Akguzel, U., Carr, A.J. et al. Experimental response of a substandard RC frame building retrofitted with GFRP sheets and slab-weakening subjected to earthquake motions. Bull Earthquake Eng 21, 893–925 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-022-01560-3

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