Precast vs. cast-in-situ reinforced concrete industrial buildings under earthquake loading: an assessment via pseudodynamic tests

The paper presents the results of pseudodynamic tests performed on a precast and cast-in-place reinforced concrete structures within the research project Seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete industrial buildings approved in July 2001 for an Ecoleader funding (European Consortium of Laboratories for Earthquake and Dynamic Experimental Research contract n° HPRI-CT-1999-00059). Both prototypes consisted of two two-bay frames, connected by an interposed hollow-core slab. They were designed according to Eurocode 8 (draft May 2001), in order to withstand the same base shear force and hypothesising that the seismic behaviour of both structures allows to assume for them the same behaviour factor q, equal to 5. In order to provide a sound experimental evidence for this assumption, the reliability of which has been already widely checked by numerical analyses, pseudodynamic tests have been performed on two prototypes at the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment of the Joint Research Centre at Ispra. The results are of the utmost importance since, on one hand they provide a confirmation of the above said hypotheses, and, on the other, they stand as a dedicated reference for a proper calibration of the Eurocode 8 design rules.