Shaking table test of a full-scale 3-storey building composed of thin reinforced concrete sandwich walls

This paper describes the results from a series of shacking table tests conducted on a full-scale reinforced concrete building. The specimen was a 3-storey structural system composed of squat cast-in-situ sandwich concrete walls with 5.50 m length, 4.10 m width and 8.25 m height. Shaking table tests were performed to validate the theoretical formulations which had been already developed by the authors in order to predict the seismic capacity of the tested structural systems. Both white noise and seismic tests were performed increasing the seismic intensity between 0.05 to 1.2 g. At the end of the experimental campaign, the building was essentially undamaged. From the white noise tests, a slight increase in the fundamental period was found, indicating some degradation. Although a meaningful interpretation of the test results in still under development, the structural system showed an impressive seismic capacity.