INVESTIGATION SEISMIC BEHAVIOUR OF HOLLOW-CORE SLABS BY VARIOUS METHOD

The research project herein reported was initiated by the awareness of the substandard behavior presented by hollow core slabs in some of the past earthquakes. This research project is aimed at the experimental characterization of the phenomena involved with the in-plane behaviour of this structural solution. In the beginning, the collapse situations in past earthquakes were analysed in order to identify the factors that were allegedly the reasons for these situations. Amongst the most recent and destructive earthquakes a special study was devoted to the Spitak, 1988, and the Northridge, 1994, earthquake. In the bam earthquake, there were problems due to defective construction and/or design. In the following figures it can be seen that, for example, in framed structures the slabs fell down in spite of the fact that the remaining structural elements remained relatively unscathed. It can, thus, be concluded that the main cause of failure was the poor diaphragm behavior. Concerning the Northridge earthquake, the majority of the affected precast structures were parking structures, generally two storey high, with precast slabs, beams and columns. In the following figures it can be seen that the crumble of the precast slabs was due to the damage of either the connection between these elements or of the connection between slab and beam elements. Some cases of collapse of the connection between slab elements and walls were also reported.

کلیدواژه ها:

Earthquakes ، Hollow-core slabs ، Precast structures ، Diaphragm behavior ، experimental tests