Nonlinear Elastic Analysis of Panelized Shear Sandwich Walls

Light-weight sandwich panel assemblies can be prefabricated, mass-produced, easily transported, and effectively erected with a small crew and no crane. A one-half scale, six-story building model made up of 2-in. (51-mm) thick aluminum sandwich panels and stapled connections resisted lateral loads of up to 83.3 psf (4,000 kN/m²) representing reference wind speeds of over 93 mph (150 km/hr). An analytical approach has been developed to predict deflections and stresses of panelized building structures having friction-variable shear connections that give rise to nonlinear behavior of the structure. Theoretical and experimental results compared within an average of 6% and a maximum of 13%.