Out-of-plane capacity of low-damage partition wall systems: the balance between maintaining robustness and allowing relative movement

Abstract

The need for low-damage non-structural systems has been apparent following many major earthquakes, where significant damage has commonly been observed to the non-structural contents of buildings. Damage to non-structural contents can prevent post-disaster facilities from being operational and have serious aggregate economic effects on the community. There have been many attempts to develop low-damage alternatives to traditional steel stud gypsum partition wall systems in multi-storey buildings, which have commonly been observed to behave quite poorly following moderate to large earthquakes. One approach for reducing the damage these systems are susceptible to is by allowing for relative movement between the partition walls and the supporting structural system. However, as the wall system is modified to allow for relative movement, it is essential to ensure the wall maintains its strength and robustness for out-of-plane actions such as imposed actions (e.g., shelf loading, TV mounts, etc.), internal wind pressures or collision/impact actions. This paper will examine the Qubit 360 system, which is a recently developed low-damage partition wall system. The paper will examine the out-of-plane performance of the Qubit 360 system using theoretical analysis and the full-scale experimental testing of both the Qubit 360 system and traditional partition wall systems.