House Frame and Prefabricated Panel

The house frame uses columns, beams, and floor slabs as load-bearing structures, with walls serving only as enclosures and partitions; prefabricated panel houses require repair and renovation or reinforcement and upgrading based on their structural conditions.

Core Characteristics, Advantages, and Disadvantages of House Frames

The house frame structure consists of beams, columns, and floor slabs forming the load-bearing system, with walls only serving as enclosures and partitions without participating in structural load-bearing. Its core advantages include flexible spatial layout, allowing free division of indoor areas; lightweight and material-saving, with beam and column components easily standardized for production, facilitating prefabricated construction to shorten project durations; and good overall integrity and seismic resistance, with cast-in-place concrete frames meeting seismic requirements through reasonable design.

However, frame structures also have significant drawbacks: stress concentration at joints, where beam-column connections are prone to damage due to complex stress conditions; insufficient lateral stiffness, with flexible structures experiencing large horizontal displacements during earthquakes, potentially causing non-structural damage (such as partition wall cracking and decoration detachment); high construction complexity, involving numerous lifting and jointing processes, greatly influenced by seasons and the environment; and height limitations, making them unsuitable for super-tall buildings and requiring the addition of shear walls or structural transition layers to improve performance.

Maintenance and Reinforcement Strategies for Prefabricated Panel Houses

Structural issues in prefabricated panel houses often focus on roofs, exterior walls, pipelines, and public spaces, requiring solutions based on actual conditions:

1. Repair and Comprehensive Renovation: For houses without structural weaknesses, focus on repairing roof leaks, exterior wall bulging, and pipeline aging, enhancing overall stability through local reinforcement (such as adding structural columns and ring beams).
2. Structural Reinforcement and Seismic Upgrading: If the building has weaknesses (such as loose prefabricated panel connections or cracked load-bearing walls), reinforcement must be carried out after professional assessment. Common measures include:
   • Adding steel supports or carbon fiber sheets: Strengthening beam-column joints and prefabricated panel connections;
   • Concrete jacketing: Increasing the cross-section of weak columns by wrapping them with concrete;
   • Foundation reinforcement: Improving foundation bearing capacity through foundation enlargement or pile foundations;
   • Adding seismic components: Installing seismic walls or energy-dissipating supports at key locations.

Key Principles: Reinforcement should prioritize resolving structural safety issues rather than focusing solely on aesthetic repairs (such as painting walls or patching tiles), while complying with current seismic codes to ensure the renovated house meets safety standards for use.