Numerical Simulation of Lateral Load-Displacement Relationships for Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls

Reinforced concrete shear walls are effective lateral resisting members widely used in high-rise buildings. In order to evaluate the seismic behavior of concrete structures and to validate the design method, cyclic loading... [ view full abstract ]

Reinforced concrete shear walls are effective lateral resisting members widely used in high-rise buildings. In order to evaluate the seismic behavior of concrete structures and to validate the design method, cyclic loading tests on shear walls are usually carried out in laboratories. In these experiments, firstly, a constant vertical load is applied on a wall, and then the cyclic horizontal load is applied through a hydraulic actuator. Thus, force-displacement cure of the wall under horizontal load can be measured by horizontal load cells and displacement gauges, which will be used for analyzing the failure characteristics, shear capacity and deformability of the wall. In this paper, a method for calculating the curve of horizontal load-displacement relationship of a reinforced concrete shear wall is proposed. Compared with other studies, this method is simple and practical, and its reliability is validated by using the experimental results in the literature. Additionally, parametric analyses are performed to examine the effects of various parameters such as concrete compressive strength, axial force magnitude and horizontal reinforcement ratio on the seismic properties of reinforced concrete shear walls.