A Study of the Behavior of Building Structures Composed of Double Layer Grid Walls and Ceilings

In the present work, a feasibility study has been carried out in order to investigate the suitability of the use of skeletal double layer grid systems as the ceilings and walls of residential, educational, hospital, commercial and administrative buildings in seismic areas by a series of the nonlinear static as well as dynamic time history analyses of representative models. In the case of the sample single story buildings designed in accordance with the common Allowable Stress Design methods, the pushover analysis results have indicated that a lighter structure with higher stiffness and lateral load carrying capacity can be achieved compared with a similar building composed of the moment resisting frame system. It has been demonstrated that with the imposition of appropriate limitations on member slenderness ratios for a few critical members, the ductility of the structure can be improved considerably. Also, the influence of the slope of the post buckling curve representing the member behavior has been found to be remarkable. A comparison of the response of the structure under the influence of three translational components of ground motion with single component excitation has demonstrated the significance of the consideration of the vertical component of ground motion in the analysis and design of such building structures. With due consideration of the lightweight and high indeterminacy of the structural system under consideration, the preliminary investigation carried out here has revealed that the proposed system is a potential candidate for the mass production of common types of building structures in seismic areas and hence deserves further theoretical and experimental investigations.