Assessment of the in-plane deformability of RC floors with traditional and innovative lightening elements in RC framed and wall structures

In this paper, the in-plane deformability of floors in Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures has been investigated in order to establish the role of lightening elements made of both traditional ceiling bricks and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) blocks. The study has been firstly developed via the implementation of three-dimensional finite element models simulating the real geometry of the floors. The numerical results have been, then, used to assess the thickness of equivalent slabs introduced in three-dimensional finite elements models of simple structures made of Reinforced Concrete frames or walls. These models have been used for verifying the effective in-plane floor deformability as a function of the vertical resistant elements typology (frames or walls), the building geometry (plane shape ratio, height, number of floor, dimensions of vertical elements), and the thickness of the equivalent slab. The numerical analyses have enabled to give interesting indications about the reliability of the hypothesis of rigid floors as the investigated parameters change.