Cyclic behavior of steel frames infilled with composite panels: Experimental and numerical

For studying the hysteretic behavior of steel frames with sandwich composite (SC) panels, an experiment was implemented. A full scale one-bay and one storey specimen was tested under cyclic loading. Seismic behaviors were evaluated in line with the failure pattern and damage process of the specimen. Based on the experimental data, hysterics loops, skeleton curves, curves of strength degradation, and curves of stiffness degradation, ductility index and viscous damping coefficient were obtained. It is indicated that although the failures of panels mostly occurred around the embedded parts, SC panels exhibit a better integration than traditional walls. The connection between panel and steel frame is crucial to the corporation of the two parts. Finally, the suggestions for seismic design were put forward based on ductility index analysis and structures' energy dissipation. Moreover, FEA study was also carried out by using ABAQUS. A good agreeement was achieved between the experimental data and the numerical result in FEA. Finally, the useful information was got according to simplified caculation model. Only 7% of lateral stiffness is considered into calculation when panel is bolted to the frame at four corners of the frame. © Hou et al.