Development of the simplified spring‐based nonlinear models for full‐connection cold‐formed steel‐framed gypsum partition walls

Abstract

The role of nonstructural components in performance‐based earthquake engineering is undeniable because of their significant contribution to the total investments in buildings. Gypsum partition walls are one of the main sources of seismic damage among other nonstructural components. As a result, researchers developed various detailed numerical modeling techniques for simulating the seismic performance of these walls. Although detailed characteristics of the walls are considered in these models by means of different nonlinear elements, these micro‐models are not appropriate to be incorporated into their parent building models due to their extensive computational cost. Therefore, this study proposes a simplified spring‐based modeling technique to facilitate the simulation of gypsum partition walls in macro building models. For this purpose, the hysteresis behavior of full‐connection gypsum partition walls is modeled using a nonlinear springs element with a parametric material model designated in the “Opensees$Opensees$” platform as the “Pinching4$Pinching4$” constitutive model. The proposed spring‐based models are then validated through the hysteresis behavior of the micro‐finite element models available in the literature. These spring models are developed to consider several construction and geometric variations such as the stud/track thickness, the distance from the center of screws to the edge of the gypsum board, the distance from the center of screws to the edge of the stud/track flanges, construction quality, and the aspect ratio of the walls. Results from this study prove that the proposed technique shows a promising accuracy besides its simplicity and effective computational cost.

Experimental investigation and modeling of boundary influences on in‐plane seismic performance of partition walls

“…Simulations are a useful option for evaluating structural and nonstructural components' seismic performance in detail and in a parametric manner. For partition walls, existing OpenSees models, 17,20,21 yet boundary-less, allow for evaluating the in-plane seismic performance of partition walls with different construction details and obtaining the data required for vulnerability analysis. To assess story drifts when partition walls fail, researchers 18 have proposed numerical models using SAP2000 under the assumption that the partition wall is rigidly connected to the main structure.…”