Numerical modelling of CFS two-storey sheathing-braced building under shaking-table excitations

The recent seismic events have highlighted the need of tools for predicting the performance until collapse and hence assisting to minimize the damages and losses. A European project, named ELISSA, has been recently finished, in which the University of Naples Federico II has explored the seismic behaviour of a Cold Formed Steel (CFS) full-scale two-storey building, via shake-table tests on bare structure and complete construction phases of specimen. Starting from experimental results, advanced numerical models have been developed using the OpenSees software, which consider both structural and non-structural elements and their contribution to the response. The comparison between experimental and numerical results showed that the proposed approach can capture the seismic behaviour of tested building, with acceptable prediction of the response in terms of inter-storey drift peaks and time history if structural and non-structural components are explicitly considered. A further task showed that the earthquake sequence effect can affect the results and it should be taken into account for a better numerical prediction.