Shake-table testing of a full-scale two-storey pre-cast wall-slab-wall structure

Given the scarce amount of information/data on the seismic behavior of pre-cast wall-slab-wall buildings, a subcategory of tilt-up construction systems, sometimes also named "tunnel buildings" (albeit the latter term is more correctly applicable only to the cast-in-place versions of such structural configurations), a dynamic shake-table test was undertaken to investigate the response/performance of a full-scale two-storey reinforced pre-cast concrete wall-slab-wall structure, up to incipient/near collapse. The building mock-up, meant to combine several common characteristics of multi-unit reinforced pre-cast concrete terraced houses, was subjected to five test runs of progressively increased intensity and collapsed due to failure of the steel connectors used to join the longitudinal and transverse walls. The testing campaign was performed at EUCENTRE laboratory in 2017. These experimental testing activities, involving also pseudostatic cyclic testing of precast and cast-in-place full-scale buildings, were undertaken within the framework of the research programme for hazard and risk of induced seismicity in Groningen sponsored by the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV (NAM).