Nonlinearity of Single Coupled Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls Supported on Two Columns

Abstract

Reinforced concrete coupled shear walls supported on two columns can be used to resist lateral loads in high rise buildings specially if columns are at ground floors to satisfy architectural requirements such as parking space dimensions. The objective of this paper is to illustrate theoretically the lateral behaviour of shear walls, connecting beams, transfer beams and supporting columns in elastic and post elastic stage. Consequently, a case study is considered to give a better understanding of the behaviour of the coupled system. Moreover, a three-dimensional non-linear finite element analysis is carried out for 18 samples taking into consideration cracking, crushing of concrete and yielding of rebar. The governing equation, which represents the general solution of the proposed differential equation, is used to validate the outcomes up to elastic range. The results are reported as the effect of characteristic strength, stiffness ratio between columns and walls, reinforcement ratio, on the ultimate horizontal load capacity and the ductility of the entire system. The results demonstrate that stiffness ratio between shear walls and supporting columns was more crucial on the response of the coupled system rather than characteristic strength and the reinforcement ratio.

Keywords

• connecting beams behavior
• coupled shear walls supported on columns
• earthquake
• non-linear finite element analysis
• transfer beam behavior