Experimental and Finite Element Analysis of External ALC Panel Steel Frames with New Semi-Rigid Connector

Abstract

In this paper, a new ALC panel connector was proposed. It has a good engineering economy and high fault tolerance. A quasistatic loading experiment was carried out to verify the feasibility of the external ALC panel steel frame under seismic loading. The test phenomena, hysteretic curve, skeleton curve, stiffness degradation, and energy dissipation of two sets of full-scale specimens were analyzed and discussed. Moreover, the simulation of pendulous Z-panel connectors with different thicknesses was carried out using ABAQUS software. The comparison reveals that the semi-rigid connection has a full hysteresis curve, good energy dissipation capacity, and a 15% increase in peak load capacity. Finally, similar results for different thicknesses in the use of pendulous Z-panel connectors reveal that using the 6 mm connector may be the most economical solution for engineering.

Keywords

• steel structures
• autoclaved lightweight aerated concrete (ALC) panel
• seismic behavior
• finite element analysis
• parametric study