Enhancing Seismic Safety and Reducing Seismic Losses: Overview and Preliminary Results of Sera Project - 3D Shaking Table Tests on an Integrated Low-Damage Building System

Lessons from recent earthquakes have provided a tough reality check of the current seismic design approach, highlighting a critical mismatch between societal expectations over the reality of seismic performance of modern buildings. The performance-based design criteria and objectives need a paradigm shift towards low-damage design philosophy and technologies that should The project provided the opportunity to coordinate a unique research effort for the development and possible future implementation in the European Environment of an integrated low-damage building systems, including structural skeleton and non-structural components for the next generation of buildings.embrace the entire building system. The final goal is the development of a cost-affordable high-performance building system, including structural skeleton, non-structural elements, services and soil foundation systems, capable of sustaining a design level earthquake with limited damage, controllable socio-economic losses and minimum disruption of business. The modern society is waiting for an “earthquake proof” and eco-friendly building at affordable costs. This paper provides an overview and the preliminary results of the EU-funded SERA project titled “(Towards the) Ultimate Earthquake proof Building System: development and testing of integrated low-damage technologies for structural and non-structural elements”. A damage-control building system based on post-tensioned rocking and dissipative mechanisms that combines self-centering and dissipating capabilities was “dressed” with traditional or low- damage enclosures and fit-outs. A two-storey 1:2 scaled fully prefabricated and dry-assembled building with two bays timber-concrete low-damage seismic frames in one direction and post-tensioned rocking dissipative timber low-damage seismic walls in the other direction was designed and pre-assembled in Italy, then transported and tested on the 3D shaking table of the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC) in Lisbon. The building also comprised two different flooring systems, namely a timber-concrete composite floor (TCC) at the first level and a prestressed timber- concrete floor (3PT) at the second level. Three test stages were performed: 1) the bare structural skeleton solution; 2) the structural skeleton including internal gypsum partitions and 3) the integrated skeleton + envelope system. Exterior GFRC panels in the frame direction and spider glazing systems in the wall direction with an internal low-damage clay brick infill wall were investigated during the last stage. Preliminary test results will be herein discussed After many cycles of input motions at different seismic intensities, the integrated low-damage system proved a very high seismic performance, confirming the unique potential of low-damage building system and the opportunity for their widespread implementation in the design and construction practice.