Experimental Seismic Fragility of Cold-Formed Steel Framed Gypsum Partition Walls
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 8
Abstract
As part of the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Research (NEESR)-Grand Challenge Project Simulation of the Seismic Performance of Nonstructural Systems, an experimental program was carried out to evaluate the seismic responses, failure mechanisms, and fragilities of cold-formed steel framed gypsum partition walls. Understanding the seismic behavior of building interior partition walls is important because damage to these nonstructural components can initiate at relatively low story drift levels, potentially degrading the overall functionality of the building and contributing toward earthquake economic losses. To this end, in-plane quasi-static and dynamic tests were conducted on 36 partition walls constructed using common construction details. Variables examined on the 16 configurations tested include framing thicknesses, stud connections to top and bottom tracks, wall intersection details, and partial height walls among others. In addition, new details are proposed to increase the drift demands at which damage is first observed and to minimize the propagation of damage through the wall. The failure mechanisms observed for the different wall configurations are reported and a seismic fragility database for groups of partitions dependent on the construction details is generated. Fragility functions are provided for three distinct damage states based on the level of repair required for the partition wall. The resulting fragility database partially fills a critical need to more accurately estimate nonstructural damage and consequential losses in buildings during earthquakes.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
Support for this research was provided by National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant No. CMMI-0721399. The input provided by the Practice Committee of the NEESR-GC Nonstructural Project, composed of W. Holmes (Chair), D. Allen, D. Alvarez, R. Fleming, and P. Malhotra; by the Advisory Board, composed of R. Bachman (Chair), S. Eder, R. Kirchner, E. Miranda, W. Petak, S. Rose, and C. Tokas; and by the other members of the Experimental Group, M. Maragakis (project principal investigator), A. Itani, G. Pekcan, A. Reinhorn, and J. Weiser, is gratefully acknowledged. The UB-NEES site personnel provided extensive support of the experimental program. The authors are most grateful to Telling Industries for donating the steel studs used in these experiments. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the investigators and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.
References
ASCE. (2010). “Minimum design loads for buildings and other structures.” ASCE/SEI 7-2010, Reston, VA.
ASTM. (2005). “Standard practices for cycle counting in fatigue analysis.” E1049-85 (R2005), West Conshohoken, PA.
ASTM. (2007). “Standard specification for installation of steel framing members to receive screw-attached gypsum panel products.” C754-07, West Conshohoken, PA.
Bersofsky, A. M. (2004). “Seismic performance evaluation of gypsum wallboard partitions. M.S. thesis, Dept. of Structural Engineering, Univ. of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
Davies, R., Retamales, R., Mosqueda, G., and Filiatrault, A. 2011. “Seismic evaluation, parameterization, and effects of cold-formed steel framed gypsum partition walls.” Technical Rep. MCEER-11-0005, State Univ. of New York, Buffalo, NY.
FEMA. (2006). FEMA 461: Interim protocols for determining seismic performance characteristics of structural and nonstructural components through laboratory testing, Applied Technology Council, Redwood City, CA.
Freeman, S. A. (1976). “Racking tests of high-rise building partitions.” J. Struct. Div., 103(8), 1673–1685.
Kircher, C. A. (2003). “It makes dollars and sense to improve nonstructural system performance.” Proc., ATC 29-2 Seminar on Seismic Design, Performance, and Retrofit of Nonstructural Components in Critical Facilities, Applied Technology Council, Redwood City, CA.
Lang, A. F. (2007). “Seismic performance evaluation of gypsum wallboard partitions.” M.S. thesis, Univ. of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
Lee, T. H., Kato, M., Matsumiya, T., Suita, K., and Nakashima, M. (2007). “Seismic performance evaluation of non-structural components: Drywall partitions.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dynam., 36(3), 367–382.
Lilliefors, H. (1967). “On the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test for normality with mean and variance unknown.” J. Am. Stat. Assoc., 62(318), 399–402.
McMullin, K. M., and Merrick, D. S. (2007). “Seismic damage thresholds for gypsum wallboard.” J. Archit. Eng., 13(1), 22–29.
Mosqueda, G., Retamales, R., Filiatrault, A., and Reinhorn, A. M. (2009). “Testing facility for experimental evaluation of nonstructural components under full-scale floor motions.” J. Struct. Design Tall Special Build., 18(4), 387–404.
Peirce, B. (1852). “Criterion for the rejection of doubtful observations.” Astron. J., II(45), 161–163.
Porter, K., Kennedy, R., and Bachman, R. (2007). “Creating fragility functions for performance-based earthquake engineering.” Earthq. Spectra, 23(2), 471–489.
Retamales, R., Mosqueda, G., Filiatrault, A., and Reinhorn, A. M. (2008). “New experimental capabilities and loading protocols for seismic qualification and fragility assessment of nonstructural components.” Technical Rep. MCEER-08-0026, State Univ. of New York, Buffalo, NY.
Retamales, R., Mosqueda, G., Filiatrault, A., and Reinhorn, A. M. (2011). “Testing protocol for experimental seismic qualification of distributed nonstructural systems.” Earthq. Spectra, 27(3), 835–856.
Rihal, S. S. (1982). “Behavior of non-structural building partitions during earthquakes.” Proc., 7th Symp. on Earthquake Engineering, Vol. 1, Sarita Prakashan, ed., Meerut, India, 267–277.
Steel Stud Manufacturers Association (SSMA). (2001). Product technical information, Steel Stud Manufacturers Association, Chicago.
Taghavi, S., and Miranda, E. (2003). “Response assessment of nonstructural building elements.” Technical Rep. PEER 2003/05, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 8 • August 2013
Pages: 1285 - 1293
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 10, 2011
Accepted: May 18, 2012
Published online: Jul 15, 2013
Published in print: Aug 1, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.