Prefabricated steel structures for low-rise buildings in seismic areas (Precasteel) : final report

Low-rise buildings are used for industrial and commercial activities. Most of these buildings are built by prefabricated-concrete elements characterised by low efficiency of connections and a lower ductility performance when subjected to earthquake loading. The proposal aim is defining prefabricated steel solutions for single-storey and low-rise buildings in earthquake-prone areas for industrial and commercial activities. The selection of structural solutions is performed via statistical analyses in different European countries about solutions requested by the market. Industrial and commercial solutions are optimised in terms of structural performance and of construction costs and two of those (technologically advance and high-performing) are experimentally tested. The solution selected for commercial activities is a dissipative device working in series with prefabricated RC-Wall and pendulum steel-structure. The solution selected for industrial activities is a warehousing system using cold-formed profiles acting compositely with ribbed steel sheeting as girder web.