Out-of-plane seismic design by testing of non-structural lightweight steel drywall partition walls

Seismic damage of non-structural components could involve functionality interruption of the most affected buildings and substantial economic losses. Among non-structural components, the ceiling-partition wall systems represent a significant investment in the construction sector. Nevertheless, the seismic design of these systems plays a secondary role within the structural design, by leading to a lack of specific design provisions. Because the behaviour of these systems cannot be easily simulated with traditional analysis methods, the experimental characterization is an effective procedure. For these reasons, an important collaboration between an international company and the University of Naples Federico II was established over the last few years. The main objective of the research is to investigate the seismic performance of non-structural lightweight steel drywall building components, i.e. partition walls and suspended continuous ceilings made of lightweight steel profiles and sheathed with gypsum-based panels. The presented paper describes and discusses particularly the out-of-plane quasi-static monotonic tests and dynamic identification tests carried out on lightweight steel drywall partition walls, mainly devoted to develop the seismic design criteria by testing of these systems