WORKING GROUP (WG4): PREFABRICATED BUILDINGS IN SEISMIC REGIONS
THE ACTIVITIES OF THE WORKING GROUP
I.
At its meeting in Skopje, September 1983, the EAEE Executive Committee decided to organise ten working groups entrusting them to prepare reports on some important problems of mutual interest for the 8th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering in Portugal, September 1986.
Bulgaria (Prof. D. Nenov) was appointed to be responsible for WG 3 on "Prefabricated Large-Panel Buildings in Seismic Regions". The WG members were 12 specialists: 8 from Bulgaria, 2 form Yugoslavia, 1 from Romania, 1 from CSSR. The Bulgarian National Committee had ensured the necessary financial support and a WG meeting was held in Sofia from 27 until 29 November 1985.
The final WG report was published in the "Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering", volume 7, pp. 73-124, Lisbon, 1986. The titles of the sections include in the report were as follows:
1. Review of the international experience on prefabricated large-panel building construction in seismic regions;
2. Connection of the large-panel buildings;
3. Analysis of standard documents for design and construction of large-panel buildings in seismic regions;
4. Analysis of large-panel buildings behaviour during earthquakes;
5. Theoretical and experimental investigations related to the seismic safety of the large-panel buildings;
6. Some new trends in the development of large-panel buildings in the seismic regions;
7. Concluding notes and some recommendations.
II.
The Working Group 4 "Prefabricated Building Structures in Seismic Regions" is one of the eight working groups formed in 1986 at the 8-th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering carried out in Lisbon, Portugal, with convenor Prof. D. Nenov. Specialists from 5 countries took part in the work (from Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, the former Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia). The Bulgarian National Committee for Earthquake Engineering had ensured the necessary financial support and a WG meeting was held in Sofia from 14 to 17 November 1988.
The final report was published in the "Proceedings of the Ninth European Conference on Earthquake Engineering", vol. A, pp. 145-204, Moscow, 1990.
The titles of the sections include in the report were as follows:
1. Generally about the prefabricated buildings;
2. Design experience and application in some European countries;
3. Requirements in the design and construction of prefabricated building structures in seismic regions;
4. Joints and connections;
5. Analysis of prefabricated building structures' behaviour during earthquakes;
6. Some new trends in the development of the prefabricated building structures in seismic regions.
More details concerning the prefabricated building construction in Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, USSR and Yugoslavia were given in the 6 annexes to the report.
III:
During the interval 1990-1994 the Working Group 4 "Prefabricated Building Structures in Seismic Regions" continued to work. The participants were from 3 countries: Bulgaria, Macedonia and Turkey. Because of the lack of financial support a meeting of participants in the group could not be organised.
The final report was published in the "Proceedings of the 10-th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering", pp. 3079-3097, Vienna, 1994. In this report it was emphasised on some specific problems which were the object of the recent investigations of researchers and specialists.
The titles of the sections include in the report are as follows:
1. Introduction;
2. Some more important trends in the research of prefabricated building structures in seismic regions;
3. Data for specific investigations in some countries (Bulgaria, Italy, Macedonia, Russia, Romania, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Japan, New Zealand, USA);
4. Conclusion.
IV.
For the period 1994-1998 the WG 4 'Prefabricated Building Structures in Seismic Regions' continued to work on some specific earthquake engineering problems. Up to now some very interesting investigations have been performed.
Bulgarian specialists have investigated the behaviour of two prefabricated buildings under the influence of a simulated earthquake. Some connections were experimented under laboratory conditions. A research about the state of the connections being 10 or 20 years in exploitation was carried out too.
The theoretical and experimental investigations performed in Skopje by the Macedonian participant (Dr. Bozinovski) are also interesting.
The Turkish participant, Prof. Ersoy, has prepared an excellent document summarising the application and research on seismic resistant precast concrete structures in Turkey.
All the above materials are now in the process of finalising as the final W.G. report.
In spite of the fact that (because of lack of financial support) a WG meeting could not be held to discuss the contents of the final report, we hope that this report will be very useful for the specialists related to the Earthquake Engineering.
As the WG convenor in conclusion, I would like to express my personal opinion concerning the future of our WG. We have been working for the last 15 years. The results of our work, our reports were published in the Proceedings of the EAEE conferences and they were well received by the specialists.
Taking into account that the contents of the WG4 reports included a large number of the earthquake engineering problems concerning the prefabrication, I think it is time to stop WG4 activity for several years. On the one hand, there are other earthquake engineering problems which are important as well. New Task Groups have to be created for them. On the other hand, it is necessary some new methods for international exchange of experience to be used. For example the periodical carrying out of seminars on special problem as the one concerning the prefabricated building structures in seismic regions, all the more that the specialists from many countries will continue to work on these problems.
Sofia Prof. D. Nenov
May, 1998 WG. 4 Convenor