Shaking table comparison tests of stepped wall-frame structures

Wenchuan and Yushu earthquakes highlighted that the bottom yielding mode of RC frame created serious consequences. A new structure system named stepped wall-frame structure is proposed to solve this problem. Shaking table tests of a 1:5 scaled ordinary RC frame model and a 1:5 scaled stepped wall-frame model were conducted to study the seismic behavior of the new structure system. The dynamic characteristics, seismic responses and failure mechanism of the two models under a series of excitations with gradually increasing acceleration amplitudes are presented. The test results demonstrate that the proposed stepped wall-frame structures can effectively control the structural deformation and damage distribution, suppress emergence of the bottom yielding mechanism, and is easy to be applied due to its simple structure and good economic benefits.