Numerical model of the hysteretic behavior of connections between waffle slabs and façade supports

Abstract

Waffle-flat-plate structures have been widely used for residential and office buildings in the South of Europe between the seventies and nineties of the last century. These buildings were designed with old seismic codes and its vulnerability needs to be evaluated to determine whether they need to be seismic retrofitted or not. This article proposes a simple model that represents the moment transfer between plate and column, for existing exterior connections loaded in the direction normal to the building façade. The model takes into account singularities of existing waffle-flat-plate structures such as the concentration of reinforcement in the direction of the joints, and the existence of punching shear reinforcement. The model consists of frame elements for the columns and shell elements for the slabs, both connected with flexural and torsion hinges. The strength of the flexural hinges is obtained by estimating the portion of longitudinal reinforcement of the plate that transfers directly the unbalanced moment to the column by flexure. The yielding deformations of the flexural and torsion hinges are estimated with simple expressions. The ductility of the flexural hinges is taken from FEMA 356, while infinite ductility is adopted for the torsional hinges in accordance with previous experimental studies. It is shown that the proposed model provides a good approximation of the experimental response of the connection under monotonically increasing lateral displacements, in terms of stiffness, strength and ductility