Influence of cladding panels on dynamic behavior of one-storey precast building

Recent Italian seismic events, as L???Aquila earthquake (2009) and Emilia earthquake (2012), demonstrated the deficiency of the actual design approach of the cladding panels system in precast buildings. Collapse of these precast panels is observed due to the connection system failure. Although cladding panels are designed as non-structural elements according to the actual code approach, i.e. no interaction with the structure is considered, a seismic excitations could make the panels collaborating with the resistant system. In this paper the influence of vertical cladding panels on seismic behavior of one-story precast concrete buildings is investigated. A parametric study is carried out to judge the influence of the cladding presence on the dynamic characteristics of precast structures. At this purpose, modal analyses are performed on both bare and infilled models. The parametric study shows a high influence of the panels on the first period of the structure, as well as the inadequacy of the code relationships for the evaluation of the natural period for such typology of structure. More suitable relations are proposed in order to evaluate the seismic demand of one story precast buildings both in the case of bare and infilled system.