Infill With Sliding Panels With a Full-Height Opening

Abstract

The innovative infill construction technique for seismic resistance, implementing horizontal sliding joints to partition the wall into subpanels, it is here tested in presence of a full height opening. With the double aim of protecting the opening fixtures (window or door) from the infill sub-panels' relative sliding and offer out of plane support to the infill, a post is placed at the opening side spanning between the top and bottom beam of the frame. The post stiffness and strength design is the object of the study. The role of the post deformability was studied by modifying the post's stiffness with additional steel profiles coupled to the initial wooden post configuration, in different test phases. The shear action at the post ends was measured with specific load cells, to provide information for the proportioning of the post and its connection to the beams. The results showed the efficiency of the post in governing the sliding mechanism between the infill sub-portions and the role of the post's stiffness in modifying the in-plane response of the infill. Thanks to the post's deformability, the overall infill-frame interaction was reduced with respect to previously tested similar infills without openings.