Research Of Adaptive Anti-seismic Partition’s Mechanical Performance Under Horizontal Load

A wall which is dividing the interior space of the building is always needed to meet the needs of different units from users. Such interior walls which are not load-bearing are called partitions. Traditional partitions generally have some drawbacks, such as:building brick wall needs more time and human resources; plasterboard wall and glass tiles wall are easy to damage because of lower strength; after the earthquake, most of partitions collapse, it will threat people’s life and property safety surrounding; most of partitions could not be repaired after destruction, etc. In this paper, an idea of an adaptive anti-seismic partition to against the shortcomings of traditional interior partitions has been proposed. The paper also made theoretical analysis and experimental research to check the feasibility of the idea.The paper introduced the development of partitions, and showed the advantages and disadvantages of common partitions, and then, proposed the point of adaptive anti-seismic by referencing the three earthquake standards of seismic design to against the shortcomings of some using partitions. This is the point:the partition increases the stiffness of the whole structure when small earthquakes act; while under the influence of large earthquakes, the partition dissipates the seismic energy put into the structure, reduces the damage to the construction. Meanwhile, the main part of the partition will not be destroyed when the earthquake action come to the end, so the partition can be easily repaired by changing the stiffness elements and the energy dissipating elements. According to this idea, the paper proposed a new partition construction program:Upper and lower walls made by reinforced concrete frame, connected to a whole wall by stiffness elements and energy dissipating elements in the middle of the partition. In the theory analysis part of this program, the paper established structure model of the partition, and analyzed the force of its key parts by using the structural mechanics solver. In the experimental part of this program, the paper produced a partition model in accordance with the program, and loaded story drift under simulated earthquake on the partition by using MTS (hydraulic servo actuator). After several experiments, the paper verified the feasibility of the adaptive anti-seismic partition, and analyzed the impact of quantity of stiffness elements on stiffness of the partition and also the relation between quantity of energy dissipating elements and partition’s capability of dissipating the seismic energy.