Experiment contributed by Damon R. FickThe test specimen was a full-scale two-span three-story reinforced concrete flatplate structure consisting of six columns spaced at 20 ft in each direction supporting a 7 in. thick slab. There was a 5 ft cantilevered slab around the perimeter of the building. The footing dimensions were 4 ft-6 in. square by 2 ft-6 in. thick. Each footing was post-tensioned to the 33 in. thick laboratory strong floor with four 1-3/8 in. Dywidag Threadbars, each post-tensioned to 100 kips.
Six 110-kip hydraulic actuators (2 per floor) were used to apply lateral load to the
test structure. The actuators were connected to a strong wall and applied load to
each floor level through a steel load frame bolted to the slab. The test was
controlled by the two roof-level actuators operating in displacement control. The
load from these actuators was multiplied by a linear ratio and used to control the
actuators on Level 3 and Level 2 in load control. A superimposed load was added to the structure by filling 55 gallon barrels with water. Each barrel weighed approximately 500 lbs. Forty barrels per floor resulted in a distributed load of 13.3 psf.