Our people
Project Co-Leaders: Rick Henry and Santiago Pujol
Project Investigators: Rick Henry (UA), Santiago Pujol (UC), Reagan Chandramohan (UC), Charles Clifton (UA), David Carradine (BRANZ), Rajesh Dhakal (UC), Ken Elwood (UA), Ashkan Hashemi (UA), Lucas Hogan (UA), Jason Ingham (UA), Chin-Long Lee (UC), Minghao Li (UC), Angela Liu (BRANZ), Quincy Ma (UA), Greg MacRae (UC), Pierre Quenneville (UA), Shahab Ramhormozian (AUT), Geoff Rodgers (UC), Max Stephens (UA), Timothy Sullivan (UC), Charlotte Toma (UA), Enrique del Rey Castillo (UA), James Lim (UA), Krishanu Roy (UA), Anqi Gu (UC), Mayank Tripathi (UC).
Industry advisors: Jared Keen (Beca), Stu Oliver (Holmes), Des Bull (Holmes)
Students: Faraz Zaidi, Qun Yang, Claire Pascua, Gonzalo Munoz, Mohamed Mostafa, Frank Bueker, Charles Kerby, Zhenduo Yan, Muhammad Rashid, Jitendra Bhatta, Hamed Bagheri, Vishvendra Bhanu, Kiran Rangwani, Ren-Jie Tsai, Robert Clement, Vinu Sivakumar, Liam Pledger.
Students (graduated): Tomomi Suzuki, Sunil Nataraj.
Programme Description
Abstract
The goal of this programme is to develop fundamental understanding, and methods and models for the quantification, of whole-of-building seismic performance through direct consideration of interactions between structural and non-structural components, as well as advances in seismic design and assessment considering a whole-of-life approach. Idealization of building systems during design often leads to components being considered in isolation without fully accounting for the performance of the building as a whole. As society increasingly demands safe, resilient, and repairable buildings there is a greater need to consider buildings as a ‘holistic’ system in order to ensure continued functionality after a range of earthquake scenarios. Key thrusts of this research will include interactions between structural components, floor diaphragm assessment and design, non-structural component demands and interactions, and implication of design decisions and methods. The mechanics of component interactions will be investigated using a combination large-scale structural testing, data from international collaborative building tests (past and new), and field observations of the performance of building in earthquakes. These data sources will be used to develop and vet methods of modelling component interactions using state-of-art numerical simulations. Synthesis and translation of these models to design methods will result in immediate improvements in building resilience.
Key Objectives
Key research thrusts within DT2 and associated objectives include:
- Implication of design and assessment methods:
- Quantify the impact of reducing drift limits on seismic design and post-EQ outcomes
- Investigate the design of nominally ductile structures for lower-drift buildings
- Comparison of performance of structural systems across all limit states
- Reimagining %NBS for seismic assessment of existing buildings
- Interactions between structural components:
- Investigate the interaction between lateral load resisting systems and floors
- Investigate the interaction between different lateral load resisting systems
- Investigate the interaction between connected buildings
- Diaphragm assessment and design:
- Refine seismic assessment methods for precast floor diaphragms in existing buildings
- Quantify the response of irregular floor diaphragms
- Investigate the design of emerging alternative floor systems
- Non-structural component demands:
- Investigate the interaction between different NSE and between structural systems and NSE.
- Quantify the acceleration and drift demands on NSE.
Research Programme Plan
DT2 Coordinated Research Programme Plan_2021-2024
Monthly Meetings
Regular meetings are held via Zoom from 10-11.30am on the 2nd Thu of every month. Meetings are open to add, please join from links below or contact Rick to be added to mailing list.
- QuakeCoRE DT2 Monthly meeting.ics
- https://auckland.zoom.us/j/94093379078?pwd=S1FxaFM3YzlmMXF5eGlvdXJza0NkUT09
Past meetings - Agenda and presentations
Workshops
Workshop : Large-scale structural testing - April 2021
Workshop: Diaphragm assessment and retrofit - Aug 2022
Workshop : DT2 - April 2023
Current Projects
DT2 Project Map
Descriptions of current projects (funded or aligned)
| Theme | Researcher (Supervisors) | Project title | Description | Outputs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Implication of design decisions | Liam Pledger (Chandramohan/Pujol) | Improving the seismic performance of buildings by increasing stiffness | Field data from past earthquakes have consistently reiterated one key observation, stiffer buildings undergo less deformation, limiting damage to the structure and non-structural components such as partitions, facades and infill walls. Recent literature has emphasized large economic losses attributed to building contents such as ceilings, sprinklers and electrical conduits which are deemed to be sensitive to acceleration demands. There is a lack of quantitative evidence to support either concept. My research will conduct numerical analyses of structures to quantify how stiffness influences structural performance. Experimental work will be performed to quantify how changes in stiffness effect non-structural components. | |
| Charles Kerby (Pujol/Henry) | Staggered Lap Splices in Slender RC Walls | Severe structural damage associated with lap splices located near the foundation of reinforced concrete (RC) structural walls has been recorded in the field after recent major earthquakes in Chile and Taiwan. Multiple laboratory investigations completed in the last two decades have validated these field observations. International RC standards have banned all lap splices located within plastic deformation regions of walls. In contrast, the current New Zealand RC standard (NZ3101:2006A3) allows lap splices arranged near wall foundations. To date, no experimental study of the details allowed by the New Zealand RC standard has been performed. Six full-scale RC walls will be cyclically tested to quantify the strength and deformation capacity of structural walls with staggered lap splices located near the foundation. | ||
| Faraz Zaidi (Elwood/Hulsey) | Seismic Assessment of RC Buildings based on Casualty Risk | Seeking improvement in the seismic assessment methodology of Reinforced Concrete buildings by incorporating risk-based metric to arrive at the assessment outcome in order to make it more objective and better aligned with the life safety intent of the assessment guidelines. The objectives are to propose a framework for risk-based assessment of buildings based on site specific hazard and identified vulnerabilities in the building and to suggest simplified extension for incorporating the risk-based approach into the current seismic assessment methodology. | ||
| Indriana Apriani (Toma/Henry) | TBC | |||
| 2. Interactions between structural components | Anqi Gu (Henry/Rodgers) | ILEE-QuakeCoRE Low-Damage Concrete Building Test: Modeling and Design | The project aims to generalize the results from the specific dimensions and design details of the large-scale test building, to understand the performance of a wide range of structures constructed using the same low-damage seismic design concepts by adopting data analysis, structural modelling and experimental component testing. | |
| Qun Yang (Henry) | Wall-to-floor interaction in low-damage concrete buildings | The aim of this research is to improve design methods for low-damage concrete buildings, including explicit consideration of structural interactions. The research involved analyzing data from ILEE concrete building test with the following objectives: 1) Understand the mechanism and response of wall-to-floor connections; 2) Quantify wall-to-floor interactions and trace the stiffness contributions of key components. 3) Analyze effects of wall-to-floor interactions with a nonlinear contact model. | Poster - QuakeCoRE 2020 | |
| Ren-Jie Tsai (Henry/Elwood) | Interaction in coupling beams and coupled walls | The project aims to study interactions between coupling beams, floors, and wall piers to improve the seismic performance and design procedure for coupled wall systems. The research objectives include: 1) Investigating axial restraint effect on coupling beams due to interaction between with adjacent structural members; 2) Developing numerical models for diagonally reinforced coupling beams and coupled walls; 3) Proposing design procedures for coupling beams, including axial restraint effect, and the wall piers. | ||
| Claire Pascua (Henry/Toma) | Seismic performance of recently constructed concrete wall-steel frame hybrid buildings | This project focusses on mixed-material buildings consisting of concrete walls and steel frames. It is composed of three parts: (1) the characterisation and typological study of recently constructed concrete wall-steel frame buildings in New Zealand; (2) experimental tests on typical concrete wall-steel beam connections; and (3) numerical modelling of a case study building. Based on the outputs, improved connection detailing and design procedure will be developed as needed. | ||
| Soheil Assadi (Hashemi) | Low Damage Wall to Floor Connections for Seismic Resilient Timber Structures | The purpose of this project is to a develop a new approach for wall-to-floor and beam-to-floor connection for mass timber structures that also dissipates the seismic energy without damage. With this new system, there is potential for increasing the damping capacity of the structure and reducing the size and number of the walls, amongst others. | ||
| Vinu Sivakumar (Hogan/Henry) | Seismic behaviour of low-rise precast wall-to-foundation connection | The precast concrete wall acts as a cladding in the perimeter of the warehouse type of low-rise structure. These walls are singly reinforced and have minimum reinforcement with a single crack formation at the base. Issues raised after the Christchurch earthquake and SESOC guidelines that on the joint opening moment, the flexural crack formed at the base is diving down behind the insert of the starter bar having incompetent strut and tie mechanism. Further investigation on shallow embedment connection under in-plane shows a ductile failure. In contrast, the insert shows a brittle type of failure under bi-axial. The reasons behind the different type of failure under different loading regime is investigated. The research mainly focuses on the load path failure of the wall-to-foundation connections under different type of loading. A numerical simulation and a detailed parametric study will be carried out based on the failure progression to get a competent wall-to-foundation connection. | ||
| Zhenduo Yan (Clifton/Ramhormozian) | ILEE ROBUST Project - Steel | ROBUST is a series of tests on a full-scale configurable friction 9 meter tall 3 storey steel frame, with non-structural elements to demonstrate a resilient building system. The structure is to be tested using two linked bi-directional shake tables at the International joint research Laboratory of Earthquake Engineering (ILEE) facilities, Shanghai, China. The seismic performance of considered 9 structural systems with and without non-skeletal elements is to be investigated. The damage threshold of each system and repairability (time and cost) are to be verified. Because of Covid delays to the testing, which have now put this nearly 2 years behind, the first group of students working on this project including myself have had to focus on design of the structure + component testing + numerical modelling. | ||
| Kiran Rangwani (MacRae/Rodgers) | Grip and Grab | TBC | ||
| 3. Diaphragm assessment and design | Mohamed Mostafa (Henry/Elwood) | System Level Seismic Performance Assessment Of Precast Hollow-core Floors and Failure Analysis of Floor Units Subjected to Torsion | This investigation has two primary objectives namely, validation of the current understanding of the expected system-level seismic performance of hollow-core floors, and investigation of the torsional performance of hollow-core floors. To achieve the aforementioned objectives, the proposed research programme was segmented into four phases. (1) Detailed damage documentation of an instrumented case-study building that was severely damaged during the Kaikoura earthquake, (2) Non-linear time-history analysis of the case study building, (3) Corelating the observed damage to local demands derived from the numerical model, and (4) Experimental testing of hollow-core units subjected to torsional demands. | Poster - ReCast |
| Frank Büker (Elwood/Hogan) | Development and Testing of Hollow-core Floor Retrofits | This research study focusses on the development and performance evaluation of retrofit solutions for precast hollow-core floors. The experimental evaluation of the retrofits was undertaken with four unit-to-beam connection tests, followed by two full-scale super-assembly tests. Based on the findings, general guidance on how to appropriately retrofit existing hollow-core floors will be provided, as well as detailed design recommendations for some selected retrofits. | ||
| 4. Non-structural component demands | Robert Clement (Dhakal/Sullivan) | Testing of a drift-sensitive sub-assembly of non-structural elements with low-damage characteristics | Low-damage precast concrete panels with novel rocking connections have been developed at the University of Canterbury, and Tests on these panels have shown their effectiveness in isolation. To gain an understanding of their applicability, the interaction between these and other drift-sensitive non-structural elements must be examined. This study does this by developing an experimental sub-assembly of precast panels, plasterboard partitions and curtain wall glazing. This sub-assembly will be tested under quasi-static loading and weathertightness testing. The aim of these tests is to provide a holistic view of the interactions between the elements in the sub-assembly, identify any incompatibilities, and verify the serviceability performance. | |
Large-scale Tests
ILEE-QuakeCoRE Low-Damage Concrete Building Test
NCREE-QuakeCoRE shake-table tests of 7-storey specimen
Robust Building System (RoBuSt) Project
Our people
Project Co-Leaders: Rick Henry and Santiago Pujol
Project Investigators: Rick Henry (UA), Santiago Pujol (UC), Reagan Chandramohan (UC), Charles Clifton (UA), David Carradine (BRANZ), Rajesh Dhakal (UC), Ken Elwood (UA), Ashkan Hashemi (UA), Lucas Hogan (UA), Jason Ingham (UA), Chin-Long Lee (UC), Minghao Li (UC), Angela Liu (BRANZ), Quincy Ma (UA), Greg MacRae (UC), Pierre Quenneville (UA), Shahab Ramhormozian (AUT), Max Stephens (UA), Timothy Sullivan (UC), Charlotte Toma (UA), Anqi Gu (UC)
Industry advisors: Jared Keen (Beca), Stu Oliver (Holmes), Des Bull (Holmes)
Students: Faraz Zaidi, Qun Yang, Claire Pascue, Mohamed Mostafa, Frank Bueker, Charles Kerby, Zhenduo Yan, Muhammad Rashid, Jitendra Bhatta, Hamed Bagheri, Tomomi Suzuki, Sunil Nataraj, Vishvendra Bhanu, Kiran Rangwani, Ren-Jie Tsai, Robert Clement, Vinu Sivakumar.
Programme Description
Abstract
The goal of this programme is to develop fundamental understanding, and methods and models for the quantification, of whole-of-building seismic performance through direct consideration of interactions between structural and non-structural components, as well as advances in seismic design and assessment considering a whole-of-life approach. Idealization of building systems during design often leads to components being considered in isolation without fully accounting for the performance of the building as a whole. As society increasingly demands safe, resilient, and repairable buildings there is a greater need to consider buildings as a ‘holistic’ system in order to ensure continued functionality after a range of earthquake scenarios. Key thrusts of this research will include interactions between structural components, floor diaphragm assessment and design, non-structural component demands and interactions, and implication of design decisions and methods. The mechanics of component interactions will be investigated using a combination large-scale structural testing, data from international collaborative building tests (past and new), and field observations of the performance of building in earthquakes. These data sources will be used to develop and vet methods of modelling component interactions using state-of-art numerical simulations. Synthesis and translation of these models to design methods will result in immediate improvements in building resilience.
Key Objectives
Key research thrusts within DT2 and associated objectives include:
- Implication of design and assessment methods:
- Quantify the impact of reducing drift limits on seismic design and post-EQ outcomes
- Investigate the design of nominally ductile structures for lower-drift buildings
- Comparison of performance of structural systems across all limit states
- Reimagining %NBS for seismic assessment of existing buildings
- Interactions between structural components:
- Investigate the interaction between lateral load resisting systems and floors
- Investigate the interaction between different lateral load resisting systems
- Investigate the interaction between connected buildings
- Diaphragm assessment and design:
- Refine seismic assessment methods for precast floor diaphragms in existing buildings
- Quantify the response of irregular floor diaphragms
- Investigate the design of emerging alternative floor systems
- Non-structural component demands:
- Investigate the interaction between different NSE and between structural systems and NSE.
- Quantify the acceleration and drift demands on NSE.
Research Programme Plan
DT2 Coordinated Research Programme Plan_2021-2024
Monthly Meetings
Regular meetings are held via Zoom from 10-11.30am on the 2nd Thu of every month. Meetings are open to add, please join from links below or contact Rick to be added to mailing list.
- QuakeCoRE DT2 Monthly meeting.ics
- https://auckland.zoom.us/j/94093379078?pwd=S1FxaFM3YzlmMXF5eGlvdXJza0NkUT09
During the initial establishing of the programme we are holding additional meetings for each theme.
- Theme 2&3: 10am Thu 2 Sept: Zoom link - https://auckland.zoom.us/j/92980028266?pwd=SE5HQlJlRS9jY0hNd2FOazkrMlJRQT09
- Theme 1: 10am Thu 16 Sept. Zoom link - https://auckland.zoom.us/j/93874165883?pwd=Y0tvT296UlV2YUplU0FCQXg3Qk5oUT09
- Theme 4: 10am Thu 14 Oct. Zoom link - https://auckland.zoom.us/j/94093379078?pwd=S1FxaFM3YzlmMXF5eGlvdXJza0NkUT09
Past meetings - Agenda and presentations
Workshops
Workshop : Large-scale structural testing - April 2021
Current Projects
DT2 Project Map
Descriptions of current projects (funded or aligned)
| Theme | Researcher (Supervisors) | Project title | Description | Outputs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Implication of design decisions | ||||
| 2. Interactions between structural components | Anqi Gu (Henry/Rodgers) | ILEE-QuakeCoRE Low-Damage Concrete Building Test: Modeling and Design | The project aims to generalize the results from the specific dimensions and design details of the large-scale test building, to understand the performance of a wide range of structures constructed using the same low-damage seismic design concepts by adopting data analysis, structural modelling and experimental component testing. | |
| Qun Yang (Henry) | Wall-to-floor interaction in low-damage concrete buildings | The aim of this research is to improve design methods for low-damage concrete buildings, including explicit consideration of structural interactions. The research involved analyzing data from ILEE concrete building test with the following objectives: 1) Understand the mechanism and response of wall-to-floor connections; 2) Quantify wall-to-floor interactions and trace the stiffness contributions of key components. 3) Analyze effects of wall-to-floor interactions with a nonlinear contact model. | Poster - QuakeCoRE 2020 | |
| Ren-Jie Tsai (Henry/Elwood) | Interaction in coupling beams and coupled walls | The project aims to study interactions between coupling beams, floors, and wall piers to improve the seismic performance and design procedure for coupled wall systems. The research objectives include: 1) Investigating axial restraint effect on coupling beams due to interaction between with adjacent structural members; 2) Developing numerical models for diagonally reinforced coupling beams and coupled walls; 3) Proposing design procedures for coupling beams, including axial restraint effect, and the wall piers. | ||
| 3. Diaphragm assessment and design | Mohamed Mostafa (Hogan) | System Level Seismic Performance Assessment Of Precast Hollow-core Floors and Failure Analysis of Floor Units Subjected to Torsion | This investigation has two primary objectives namely, validation of the current understanding of the expected system-level seismic performance of hollow-core floors, and investigation of the torsional performance of hollow-core floors. To achieve the aforementioned objectives, the proposed research programme was segmented into four phases. (1) Detailed damage documentation of an instrumented case-study building that was severely damaged during the Kaikoura earthquake, (2) Non-linear time-history analysis of the case study building, (3) Corelating the observed damage to local demands derived from the numerical model, and (4) Experimental testing of hollow-core units subjected to torsional demands. | Poster - ReCast |
| Frank Büker (Elwood/Hogan) | Development and Testing of Hollow-core Floor Retrofits | This research study focusses on the development and performance evaluation of retrofit solutions for precast hollow-core floors. The experimental evaluation of the retrofits was undertaken with four unit-to-beam connection tests, followed by two full-scale super-assembly tests. Based on the findings, general guidance on how to appropriately retrofit existing hollow-core floors will be provided, as well as detailed design recommendations for some selected retrofits. | ||
| 4. Non-structural component demands | ||||