Study on Mechanical Behavior of Steel Frame with ALC Wall Panels and Its Connections

Quasi-static experiments were conducted to study the failure mode and bearing mechanism of external ALC wall panel and traditional hook blot connections. In view of the insufficiency of the above connections, the seismic detail measures of placing the densified steel mesh around the internal connections in ALC wall panels were proposed, and the mechanical performance of the connections is studied. For this purpose, wall panels with and without an opening and the panel reinforced with steel mesh were designed, and low-cycle loading tests were conducted on these specimens. The finite element software ABAQUS was used to conduct numerical simulation. The results showed that openings were the weak components of ALC panels and destroyed firstly, but the size of openings has little effect on steel frame's seismic performance. For the specimens with traditional hook blot connections, when the story drift ratio was less than 1/250 rad, there were vertical cracks on filling materials between ALC panels and tiny horizontal cracks around blot connections, which satisfies the requirements of the serviceability limit state. When the story drift ratio reached 1/75 rad, the cracks around connections develop obliquely, and the surrounding concrete was gradually compressed and crushed, so the panels were less likely to adapt to the deformation of main structures with the risk of dropping down and collapse under rare earthquake. However, this measure for the specimens embedded with reinforcing steel mesh in the panel was effective and reasonable, which provide enough force support for the panels, and can effectively delay the crack displacement of panels, satisfy the needs of relatively large structural lateral deformation and satisfied the requirement for seismic resistance of non-structure components in codes. © 2022, Editorial Department of Journal of Hunan University. All right reserved.