Response of thin lightly-reinforced concrete walls under cyclic loading

•Thin concrete walls with unconfined boundary elements are evaluated experimentally.•Limit states for the tested walls are proposed.•Design limits and drift capacity are discussed in terms of the obtained response. During the last two decades, thin concrete walls have been frequently used to brace m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Engineering structures 2018-12, Vol.176, p.175-187
Main Authors: Blandon, Carlos A., Arteta, Carlos A., Bonett, Ricardo L., Carrillo, Julian, Beyer, Katrin, Almeida, João P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Building codes
Cold-drawn reinforcement
Concrete
Concrete construction
Construction
Crack propagation
Cyclic loads
Cyclic testing
Drift
Earthquake construction
Earthquakes
Energy dissipation
Failure modes
High rise buildings
Layouts
Lightly-reinforced slender walls
Materials fatigue
Post-tensioning
Propagation modes
Reinforced concrete
Reinforcing steels
Seismic activity
Seismic design
Seismic response
Steel
Stiffness
Thin wall
Walls
Welded-wire mesh
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Summary:•Thin concrete walls with unconfined boundary elements are evaluated experimentally.•Limit states for the tested walls are proposed.•Design limits and drift capacity are discussed in terms of the obtained response. During the last two decades, thin concrete walls have been frequently used to brace mid- to high-rise buildings in some Latin American countries. This structural system differs significantly in terms of wall geometry and reinforcement layout from traditional cast-in-place reinforced concrete wall buildings. Limited experimental data on this wall system and the absence of post-earthquake field observations make it difficult to assess whether such walls behave similarly to the walls designed according to the current local design code. The paper presents and discusses the results of an experimental program comprising quasi-static cyclic tests of four slender, thin and lightly-reinforced concrete walls with different geometrical configurations, steel properties and reinforcement layouts, which correspond to a common construction practice in Colombia. The seismic response of the specimens was assessed in terms of crack propagation and failure modes, hysteretic and backbone curves, contribution of rocking, flexural, shear and sliding components to lateral drift, stiffness degradation, and energy dissipation capacity. The results suggest that the response of these reinforced concrete walls does not meet the performance specified in the Colombian regulation if they are designed to reach the maximum lateral drift allowed by the code.
ISSN:0141-0296
1873-7323
DOI:10.1016/j.engstruct.2018.08.089