Study on seismic performance of a novel connection for exterior wall panels

In order to avoid the damage of the external wall panel and connecting joints caused by the incompatibility between the steel structure and the external wall panel under earthquake loads, as well as to control the interaction between the structure and wall panel to ensure favorable impacts on the main structure, a new connection for external wall panel is proposed. This connection combines the features of the sliding connection and the energy dissipating connection. To investigate the deformation behavior, failure modes, and energy dissipation capacity of the connection, a total of ten specimens with different parameters were designed for cyclic loading. The results indicate that the new connection dissipates energy through bending plastic deformation and pull-bending plastic deformation of the side plate, demonstrating excellent deformation and energy dissipation capacity with noticeable post-yield strengthening effect. Additionally, the effects of different geometric parameters on the initial stiffness, yield load, bearing capacity and hysteretic properties of the connections are also analyzed. Finally, based on the theoretical model of the space rigid frame, the calculation formula of the characteristic parameters at elastic stage of the joint is proposed by the assumptions of ignoring torsion, axial and shear deformation, which is validated by the test results and finite element simulation.