The interaction between cladding panels and the main structure is a crucial point to assess the seismic response, and above all the structural safety, of RC precast industrial building. In the past, connections were often designed to allow construction tolerances and to accommodate both thermal and wind-induced displacements. The lack of specific details to allow relative in-plane displacements between cladding panels and the main structure often led to the participation of cladding panels in the structure seismic-resistant system with consequent connection failures. In the last decades, a lot of experimental tests were performed to investigate the in-plane performance of panel connections, and some design recommendations have been developed accordingly. In the out-of-plane direction, the connections were often considered to be infinitely rigid and not to suffer any damage by the seismic load. This work deals with the out-of-plane response of panel-to-structure connections for vertical panels typical of industrial and commercial precast buildings. Both standard hammer-head strap and new devices, called SismoSafe, were investigated. Tests were performed in the Structures and Materials Testing Laboratory of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Florence, where a specific setup was designed to perform cyclic and monotonic tests on the connection devices. Standard connections showed a rather limited resistance, while the innovative connections exhibited a high out-of-plane resistance. Numerical analyses were also performed on a case study building to evaluate the distribution of the out-of-plane demand on the connections.

覆层板与主体结构之间的相互作用是评估RC预制工业建筑物的地震反应以及尤其是结构安全性的关键点。过去，连接经常被设计成允许结构公差并适应热和风引起的位移。缺乏具体细节以允许覆层板和主结构之间的相对面内位移经常导致覆层板参与结构抗震系统，从而导致连接失败。在过去的几十年中，进行了许多实验测试以调查面板连接的平面内性能，并据此提出了一些设计建议。在面外方向上 通常认为这些连接是无限刚性的，不会受到地震载荷的任何破坏。这项工作涉及工业和商业预制建筑物典型的垂直面板的面板到结构连接的平面外响应。对标准锤头皮带和称为SismoSafe的新设备都进行了调查。在佛罗伦萨的土木和环境工程系的结构和材料测试实验室中进行了测试，在该实验室中设计了一种特定的设置来对连接设备执行循环和单调测试。标准连接显示出相当有限的电阻，而创新连接显示出高的面外电阻。