| While many non-structural elements--including architectural walls--are connected directly to the structural system, their effects are largely ignored in conventional analyses. Engineers have a qualitative understanding of how non-structural components alter building response, but little research has been conducted to quantify their impact. The objective of the research presented herein is to assess the amount by which interior steel stud partition walls alter building characteristics and response to ambient and seismic excitations.; The effects of architectural walls are quantified by conducting an analytical parametric study. Three different wall configurations and distributions are included in the parametric study. An analytical model developed as part of the current research is used to represent the architectural walls; the model is incorporated directly into DRAIN-2DX, a nonlinear finite element analysis program. A suite of fifteen input ground motion records, scaled to each of five different levels, is used for the analyses.; Architectural walls have the largest impact on initial building characteristics (i.e., initial period and stiffness); the walls contribute stiffness to the frames, thus reducing the fundamental period by as much as 60%. As the response amplitude increases, however, the walls are damaged, and thus their impact on building response is reduced. The effect of the walls on base shear is not, in general, significant since their strength relative to that of the bare frame is low. While considering the behavior and effects of architectural walls under low level excitations is important, ignoring their effects during severe earthquakes is, in general, acceptable.; In conjunction with the parametric study, two equivalent linearization techniques are proposed so that the effects of the walls may be considered without explicitly modeling their nonlinear load-deformation characteristics. Although the response of the equivalent linear systems does not match that of the frames with the walls included exactly, the peak response of the equivalent linear systems is within 20% of that of the original systems. |
