Shaking table testing of a full-scale three storey resilient and reparable complete composite steel
framed building system is being conducted. The building incorporates a number of interchangeable
seismic resisting systems of New Zealand and Chinese origin. The building has a steel frame and
cold formed steel-concrete composite deck. Energy is dissipated by means of friction connections.
These connections are arranged in a number of structural configurations. Typical building nonskeletal elements (NSEs) are also included. Testing is performed on the Jiading Campus shaking
table at Tongji University, Shanghai, China. This RObust BUilding SysTem (ROBUST) project is a
collaborative China-New Zealand project sponsored by the International Joint Research Laboratory
of Earthquake Engineering (ILEE), Tongji University, and a number of agencies and universities within New Zealand including BRANZ, Comflor, Earthquake Commission, HERA, QuakeCoRE,
QuakeCentre, University of Auckland, and the University of Canterbury.
This paper provides a general overview of the project describing a number of issues encountered in
the planning of this programme including issues related to international collaboration, the test plan,
and technical issues
