Shaking table test of a 10-story self-centering tube building

The severe damage of conventionally designed buildings and consequent socioeconomic impacts after major seismic events have spurred the development of self-centering systems with high seismic resilience. Post-tensioned (PT) walls with rocking interfaces allowed to open and close and unbonded PT bars that provide most of the re-centering ability have been developed extensively as a promising self-centering technology. Aiming at providing essential insights into the seismic performance of self-centering tube systems, a 1/6-scale ten-story self-centering tube building was designed, constructed, and tested on a shaking table subjected to a series of unidirectional and bidirectional ground motions with increasing intensities. The test building consisted of a self-centering tube that included four PT walls and provided the primary lateral force resistance in both directions, a perimeter rocking frame that was designed mainly to carry gravity loads, and particular connections with slots to accommodate the potential displacement incompatibility among the PT walls and surrounding components. The experimental results indicated the excellent seismic performance of the test building that had reliable structural integrity and experienced only confined damage even when subjected to extremely high intensities. The building also exhibited satisfactory re-centering ability with minimal residual deformations at the conclusion of testing. It was demonstrated that the self-centering tube system is a desirable low-damage alternative to traditional tube systems in earthquake-prone regions. The benchmark data from this test provided unique suggestions and support for further research on the design methods, numerical modeling, and experimental testing of self-centering tube systems.