Behavior of framed modular building system with double skin steel panels

A new type of lateral force-resisting system, a framed modular building with double skin steel panels of slender thin steel plates is presented. Modular construction leads to faster construction, improved quality and reduced resources and waste. A steel panel strengthened framed modular system is developed for the lateral load resisting system instead of in situ concrete core walls. The proposed double skin steel panel systems showed moderate ductility and energy dissipation due to their post-buckling strength. Full-scale experiments on a framed modular system with double skin steel panels were conducted. The test of the frame with steel panel systems showed that all steel panel systems reached a yielding point before the frame structure started to yield, so that severe damage to the frame as a primary structure was controlled. Also, the steel panel systems increased the initial lateral stiffness of the total system and maintained the elastic range of the panels up to near the yielding point of plates without local buckling driven from its shear behavior. By rigid-plastic analysis, the post-buckling strength of thin plates under in-plane bending was predicted and compared with experimental results. Based on the experimental data of the panels, the analytic model of these panel systems was constructed and compared with the experimental results of frames with double skin steel panel systems.

Research highlights
► A new type of lateral force-resisting system with double skin steel panels.
► Moderate ductility and energy dissipation due to their post-buckling strengths.
► Full-scale experiments show that steel panels yield before the yielding of frame.
► Rigid-plastic analysis predicts experimental results well.