Preliminary Results in the Design and Testing of Earthquake-Proof Glass-Aluminium Partition Walls

Recent years have seen an increasing demand in the use of glass partition walls in office buildings, with major concerns regarding their behaviour and safety in case of strong seismic events. This study illustrates the development of an innovative solution for aluminium-glass partition walls that can resist, without any damage, horizontal accelerations as those measured during strong earthquakes. The proposed solution is based on a highly dissipative interface rubber between the aluminium frame and the glass plate, the latter constituting the largest portion of the mass of the partition wall. During a seismic event the glass plate moves relatively to the aluminium frames, thus, activating a dissipative mechanism that is basically a scaled-down version of what is seen in rubber bearings used in seismic isolation. In this article the initial structural concept is presented, preliminary numerical analyses illustrated, the preparation of preliminary small-scale prototypes followed by full-scale prototypes, and the execution of shake-table tests to simulate extreme seismic events are discussed. It is shown that very encouraging structural performances can be achieved in a product that is economically comparable to currently non-earthquake proof solutions, without problems or limitations in its every-day use.