Seismic Response of Anchorage Elements Used in Curtain Wall Systems

Utilizing curtain wall systems as outer covering of a building has been enormously increasing for the last years. Past earthquakes have revealed the wrong design of curtain wall systems connections that can seriously endangers human life. In this study, design procedures proposed by different international and national earthquake codes and specifications to compute the forces in the connection of curtain wall systems are summarized. As a real example, a regular 30-storey reinforced concrete building is considered, and a Finite Element Model is created for this structure. A detailed model for the building and the curtain wall systems and their connection anchors are considered. The axial and shear forces in the anchors are computed using the average results of seven sets of time history analyses. The results are compared with the results of building model using spectrum modal combination analyses and the forces in the connection anchors are proposed by different Specifications; Turkish Earthquake Code 2007, Turkish Earthquake Code 2018, Federal Emergency Management Agency, European Standard. As a result, it can be concluded that the seismic forces used for the design of anchors of the curtain wall systems are better estimated by the specification suggested by Turkish Earthquake Code 2007 compared to the detailed model results.