Chapter 3

3. Development of Computer Model for building Façade System

3.1. Introduction
This study comprehensively investigates the seismic response of multi-storey building facade
systems. Energy absorbing connections in the form of Metallic yield dampers are used to
mitigate the adverse seismic effects on the system.

Though, the 12-storey models are the focus, especially as their natural frequencies are within the
range of the dominant modes of the selected earthquakes. The development of the computer
model for the building façade system is hence described with respect to the 12 storey model.

The computer model is validated by comparing results with those from an existing study.
Finite element techniques are employed to investigate seismic response of these structures under
the El Centro, Kobe, Hachinohe and Northridge earthquakes scaled to peak ground acceleration
(PGA) 0.15g to suit low seismic activities in Ethiopia.

The feasibility of the present procedure is established through the analysis of a simpler, 3-storey
building façade system with and without dampers. The structural façade system is mainly glass
facades.

3.2. Description of 12-storey structural models-undamped structure

Two-dimensional 12-storey, 4 span structures is chosen to carry out the initial study.
Columns and beams of the frame have cross-sectional dimensions of 0.6 x 0.6 m and 0.65
x 0.6 m, respectively to support the gravity loads.
This structure has four spans, each of 6.50 m and the height between storeys is 4.0 m,
which made the overall height of the structure 48.0 m.
Facade panels are conveniently modelled using plane stress elements. Glass facade is initially
chosen for the facades as they are popular in worldwide. Normally, the height of the facade wall
model is equal to the floor height.

In this study the dimensions of the facade panels are 6.40 m wide, 3.9 m high so as to
accommodate the connections.
The facade panels are placed in the second storey and onward up to the 12 storey at 0.05
m distance from the building frame. The connection between facade and frame are
modelled as linear springs.

Each faced panel contained a total of six connection points, 4 vertical connections at beam ends
and 2 horizontal connections to the column ends. It is necessary to determine the desired
properties of the connections in terms of stiffness and energy absorption capacity and this will be
described in the next section. Fig. 3.1 illustrates the model of twelve storey building façade
system.
Figure 3.1 Model of 12-storeys building facade system

Based on Ethiopian Building Code dead and live loads are calculated and applied to the
structures in the form of uniformly distributed loads. In order to investigate the influence of load
magnitude, the following two load cases are considered.

i. Load case 1: The vertical loading on the structure is 75 kN/m applied to the lower storey
beams while the load distributed to the top storey beam is 50 kN/m.
ii. Load case 2: The vertical loading on the structure is 40 kN/m applied to the lower storey
beams while the load distributed to the top storey beam is 34 kN/m.

2.2. Description of 12-storey structural model with energy absorbing connections

For energy absorption at the connections, VE dampers were found to be appropriate.

These dampers have proven to be reliable (Marko et al., April 2006), and their properties are
easy to evaluate. Moreover, VE dampers are easy to model in finite element programs. With this
type of energy absorbing connection, this study is able to comprehensively investigate the
influence of the damping connections on the seismic response of the building facade systems.

The 12-storey building façade system with the properties and loads described in Sec. 3.2 with
the addition of the VE damping devices, modelled by spring (represents stiffness) and
dashpot (represents damping) in parallel was investigated.

These energy absorbing connections were placed in the horizontal direction of the structure

The stiffness and damping coefficients were defined by Abbas & Kelly (1993) as follows:

Where:
A is the shear area of the VE material
t is the thickness of the VE material
ω is the loading frequency of the VE damper
G′ is the shear storage modulus, and
G′′ is the shear loss modulus.
The following expressions were used to obtain the moduli of the Viscoelastic
material as defined by Abbas and Kelly (1993):

Where γ is the shear strain

In order to find the optimum values of connection properties different values of stiffness
and damping were investigated.

The VE damping connections were used to determine their capacity to effectively control
the,

Facade distortion,
Deformation in connections,
Forces in connections and
The differential displacement between frame and facade.
In this study the most extensive investigation was conducted on medium-rise12-storey structures
(Chapter 5) where a comprehensive evaluation of properties of connections was performed.
The properties of the damper for these 12 storey structures were first calculated as
stiffness kd = 18 x 106 N/m and
damping coefficient Cd = 30 x 106 Ns/m based on double layer damper in parallel with
dimensions of 310 mm by 160 mm by 4 mm and
the values G’ = 1,102,885 Pa and
G” = 1,525,000 Pa.
These moduli were calculated using the loading frequency f = 0.84 Hz, which
corresponded to the fundamental frequency of the 12 storey structure model.
3.3. Material properties
The following structural materials will be used in this study:
i. Concrete used for frame and facades:

the material properties of concrete with a

 Compressive strength, f′c of 32 MPa,
 Young’s modulus, Ec of 30,000 MPa,
 Density, ρ of 2400kg/m3 and
 Poisson’s ratio, υ of 0.2.

ii. Glass used for facade:

 Simax glass having a tensile strength of 35-100MPa and
 Young’s modulus, E of 64,000 MPa is chosen.
 The allowable tensile stress is 3.5MPa and
 The allowable compressive stress is up to 100 MPa.
 Poisson’s ratio, υ is 0.2, and
 Density is 2,230 kg/m3

iii. Rubber used as a sealant at the junctions between the aluminium frame and glass facades:
 the material properties of rubber with Young’s modulus, Ec of 0.7 MPa,
 Density, ρ of 1000 kg/m3 and
 Poisson’s ratio of 0.45.
iv. Aluminium used to construct the frame which is connected directly to the glass facades via
rubber sealants:
 the material properties of aluminium with a Compressive yield strength, f
′c of 0.035 MPa,
 tensile yield strength of 0.035
 Young’s modulus, Ec of 70,000 MPa,
 Density, ρof 2700kg/m3 and
 Poisson’s ratio, υ of 0.33.
3.4. Loading and boundary conditions

The seismic loading applied to the structural models in this study is from existing earthquake
records. These earthquake records are time histories of horizontal ground accelerations. The
acceleration is applied in the x-direction at the base of the structure, as shown in Fig 3.1. In order
to allow for this, the boundary condition is defined as acceleration in the x-direction in which the
earthquake record is applied.

The supports at the base of the structure are modelled as a rigid joint, restrained against
translation and rotation in x, y and z directions. The vertical loading on the structure is in the
form of uniformly distributed loads applied to the beams (as described in Section 3.2).

3.5. Input earthquake records

Earthquakes have various properties such as, duration of strong motion, range of dominant
frequencies and peak acceleration. For that reason, they will have different influences on the
structures. Four well-known earthquake records are used in this study to certify that the selected
procedure for mitigation is efficient under varied sorts of excitations. The selected earthquakes
are applied for only the first 20 seconds of their durations. The range of dominant frequencies as
well as the duration of the strong motion is kept unchanged. In order to achieve consistent
comparison of the response of a structural model under different earthquakes, and to suit low
seismic activities in Ethiopia, these earthquake records are scaled down to have a common peak
ground acceleration (PGA), or maximum acceleration of 0.1g initially and then a higher value of
0.3g.
For investigation of the dynamic response of the structural models, the following
earthquake records were selected:

i. El Centro (1940) with duration of strong motion in the range of 1.5-5.5 seconds
and dominant frequencies in the range 0.39-6.39 Hz,

ii. Kobe (1995) with duration of strong motion in the range of 7.5-12.5 seconds
and dominant frequencies in the range 0.29-1.12 Hz.
Hachinohe (1994) with duration of strong motion in the range of 3.5-7.5 secs and dominant
frequencies in the range 0.19-2.19 Hz,

Northridge (1994) with duration of strong motion in the range of 3.5-8.0 secs and dominant
frequencies in the range 0.14-1.07 Hz and

San Fernando (1971) with duration of strong motion in the range of 4.5-9.5 secs and
dominant frequencies in the range 0.58-4.39 Hz.
3.6. Finite element analysis

Finite Element (FE) methods have been employed in this research to model, analyse and evaluate
the effects of the energy absorbing connections, using Metallic yield dampers, on the seismic
response of the building facade system. The program selected for the numerical analysis was
ETAB 18.0.1. This programme was used for generating the geometry, boundary conditions and
loading conditions of the model as well as analysis. To reduce the computational effort and to
simplify the modelling of selected structures, one dimensional frame elements were selected for
beams and columns and two dimensional plane stress elements were adopted for facade panels.
In a finite element analysis, selection of mesh size and layout is critical. Usually, it is desirable to
use as many elements as possible in the analysis to improve accuracy. However, such an analysis
will require excessive computer time. In this analysis, adequate numbers of elements were
chosen for both frame and facades in order to obtain sufficient accuracy of results without
excessive use of computer time after carrying out a convergence study.

Time history dynamic analysis was selected to obtain the response of the structure under seismic
loading. This analysis assembles the mass, stiffness and damping matrices and solves the
equations of dynamic equilibrium at each point in time. The response of the structure is obtained
for selected time steps of the input earthquake accelerogram. To investigate the effectiveness of
the Metallic yield damping connections in mitigating the seismic response of the building facade
system, the following important parameters are obtained from the results of the analysis,

i. Deformation of connections in terms of (extension/compression of spring)

ii. Axial forces in springs
iii. Differential displacement between facade and frame
IV. The distortion of façade

The results of the above parameters were then compared with those of structural system, without
energy absorbing connections.
In order to establish the adequacy of linear analysis in this study, the 12 storeys building frame
was subjected to both linear and nonlinear analyses under the El Centro earthquake scaled to a
PGA of 0.2g. The maximum tip deflections were 68.60mm and 69.72mm respectively under the
linear and nonlinear analyses respectively, confirming that linear analysis in adequate for the
present study.