Fem Model of Plasterboard Partitions for Seismic Capacity Evaluation

Abstract eng:
The paper deals with the in plane seismic performance assessment of internal partitions. A finite element model capable to capture the inter-story drift ratio which causes the failure of plasterboard partition is presented. Both the steel stud and the plasterboards, constituting the panel, are modelled through linear elastic elements. The nonlinearity is lumped in the panel-to-stud screwed connections. A tri-linear force-displacement backbone curve is assigned to the screwed connections matching the experimental results of monotonic tests on such a connection. The Direct Strength Method is applied to assess the occurrence of different buckling failure modes, i.e. local, distortional and global failure modes. This method allows considering the restraining effect given by both the presence of the plasterboards and the screwed connections through the presence of linear springs on the steel stud cross section. The validation of the proposed model is performed by comparing the analytical behavior with the experimental evidence of a quasi-static test campaign on a plasterboard partition conducted at the Laboratory of the Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture at the University of Naples Federico II. The comparison between the numerical results and the experimental evidence on a plasterboard partition shows that the model well catches the buckling failure modes of the specimen. In particular, the inter-story drifts which cause either the local or the global buckling in the partition are well predicted. Moreover the analytical model highlights that the demand in the steel stud is concentrated across the two horizontal joints between the plasterboards, justifying the damage evidenced during the experimental test exactly under and over the joints.

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