Effective width estimation of L-shaped RC shear walls using EPR algorithm

Abstract

Effective width is known as an important parameter in the analysis and design of non-rectangular Reinforced Concrete (RC) shear walls. Current design codes, i.e., ACI, CEN, UBC, and BS, propose a constant value for the effective width calculation of flanged sections, which proved to be conservative and ineffective in some cases. Of the conventional non-rectangular RC shear walls, the L-shaped sections have rarely been investigated in the technical literature. As the L-shaped RC shear walls can extensively be employed for structural and architectural reasons, a reliable assessment of the effective width of L-shaped sections is essential. Therefore, this paper attempts to propose applicable formulations for the effective width estimation of L-shaped RC shear walls. In that regard, a number of numerical investigations involving finite element analyses have been conducted in the ABAQUS software in order to evaluate the cyclic performance of L-shaped RC shear walls. The numerical results including the axial strain and displacement distributions have been attained for 42 L-shaped RC shear walls with three different aspect ratios, at which the shear-lag effects have been taken into consideration. In addition, on the basis of the evolutionary polynomial regression (EPR) analyses, applicable formulations have been established to be utilized for the initial estimation of the effective width of the L-shaped sections. The effectiveness of the proposed expressions has been examined by assessing the R-factor of the estimations. On account of the average R-factor of 0.88, the capability of the proposed expressions has been ascertained in assessing the effective width of L-shaped sections. Moreover, in order to further highlight the unavoidable effects of level of axial loading and drift values on the variation of the effective width, different curves have been presented. Furthermore, calculation of the Mean Absolute Relative Error (MARE) index demonstrates that uniform distribution can well estimate the effective width of L-shaped RC walls.

Keywords

• l-shaped rc shear wall
• effective width
• shear-lag
• fe simulation
• epr analysis