Numerical and experimental analysis of pure aluminium shear panels with welded stiffeners

In the field of passive seismic protection of framed buildings shear panels can be effectively applied as hysteretic devices. Recently, a wide experimental and numerical study has been undertaken at the University of Naples in order to investigate the behaviour of aluminium alloy stiffened shear panels. Test results show that the proposed system is characterised by a large energy dissipation capacity and therefore is suitable to be used for seismic protection of new and existing framed buildings. To simulate the hysteretic behaviour of the systems, according to the experimental tests, a refined FEM model has been set up. The comparison between experimental and numerical results shows that the adopted model is reliable enough to well interpret a number of important behavioural phenomena in terms of the main global features of the system.