Friction characterisation testing of fabric felt material used in pre-cast structures

Friction testing of fabric felt material was undertaken, combining triplet-monotonic and cyclic-symmetric tests, with a view to characterise this material, allowing not only an estimate of the shear force transferred, in actual buildings, between the slabs and the pre-cast walls underneath them, but also a likely force-displacement relationship applicable to numerical modeling of wall-slab joints that merely consists of fabric felt layers. The testing campaign was performed at EUCENTRE laboratory in 2017. These experimental testing activities, involving also the pseudostatic cyclic and shake-table testing of full-scale building prototypes meant to combine several common characteristics of multi-unit reinforced concrete terraced houses, were undertaken within the framework of the research programme for hazard and risk of induced seismicity in Groningen sponsored by the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV (NAM).