Earthquake Engineering of Concrete Flat Plate Systems | A Laboratory and Computer Simulation

Use of flat plate systems has become increasingly popular; however, relatively sparse experimental data are available to assess the dynamic responses and performance of such systems. To address these gaps, shake table tests of two, one- third scale, two-bay by two-story flat plate frames with shear reinforcement were conducted. One of the specimens consisted of a conventional reinforced concrete flat plate, whereas the other specimen consisted of nominally reinforced flat plate with post-tensioning reinforcement. The post-tensioned slab-column frames performed well, verifying that this commonly used system is effective. Although slab-column punching failures occurred during the tests, lateral drift ratios of about 4% and 5% were achieved for the RC and PT frames, respectively, with relatively little loss of lateral load capacity. Analytical studies were conducted to validate models for simulating dynamic responses of the slab-column frames and to improve the response predictions by implementing a limit state model for punching failures. The analytical models investigated were capable of reproducing the experimental responses quite well.