Abstract:
Due to the increasing population and reduced availability of usable lands for
construction activities, many residential and commercial buildings are becoming
medium- to high-rise structures globally. Complementing this trend, the Sri Lankan
construction industry has incorporated precast products as core elements in several
projects due to their better performance, enhanced quality, elevated control,
reduced leading time of construction, adaptability of novel technologies in
construction and controlled material processing during manufacturing. During the
past decade, precast wall panels became one of the popular precast panel elements
satisfying both load-bearing and non-load bearing structural requirements in Sri
Lanka. Originally, precast wall panels were intended to be used as internal partition
wall panels, which are not expected to resist loading nor undergo significant
deformations. This paper focuses on verifying the usability of such precast panels
as external wall panels in multi-storey buildings, where their load resistance is
investigated under lateral wind loads and vertical deformations due to column
shortening effects. In addition, using the shape optimization technique in-built into
ABAQUS CAE advanced finite element software, a better layout for the precast wall
is also proposed and their performance is compared with the current standard
layout under similar loading and boundary conditions. It was found out that the
optimized precast hollow core panels are 19.88% less in volume with similar
performance and can be used as external wall panels to withstand wind induced
lateral loads in multistorey buildings. The recommendations on how many panels
shall be used in a single assembly are also presented.
