The behavior of reinforced concrete walls that exhibit the shear mode of failure is studied, through the results of an experimental program that included the test of 26 full-scale specimens subjected to cyclic horizontal displacements of increasing amplitude. Test parameters were the aspect ratio of the walls, the amount of vertical and horizontal distributed reinforcement, and the compressive strength of concrete. The results include the cracking shear strength, the maximum shear strength, the drifts associated to these loads and the drift associated to a collapse limit state for each of the specimens tested. Conclusions are drawn concerning the deformation capacity, the energy absorption, the dissipation characteristics and the strength deterioration after maximum strength shown by the walls and the influence of vertical distributed reinforcement on the seismic behavior of walls. [DOI: 10.1193/1.1490353]

Seismic Behavior of Squat Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls

The City of Los Angeles, the City and County of San Francisco, and other communities on the West Coast are undergoing a boom in the construction of high-rise buildings that involve a variety of unusual configurations, innovative structural systems, and high performance materials. Various jurisdictions, with the active involvement of peer review committees, are considering performance-based methods to assess the adequacy of these new designs. These parallel efforts create a timely opportunity for collaboration to improve and increase the application of performance-based designs for tall buildings, thereby assuring that new high-rise construction meets intended safety and performance objectives, ensuring safe and usable buildings after future major earthquakes. The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) is presently undertaking a multiyear program to develop guidelines to aid the engineering community with the design, analysis and construction of these tall buildings.

ATC-72 of the PEER Tall Buildings Initiative: Interim Guidelines on Modeling and Acceptance Criteria for Seismic Design and Analysis of Tall Buildings

The efficiency of coupled wall systems to resist lateral loads is well known In order for the desired behavior of the coupled wall system to be attained, the coupling beams must be sufficiently strong and stiff The coupling beams, however, must also yield before the wall piers, behave in a ductile manner, and exhibit significant energy‐absorbing characteristics This paper reviews the current state of the art for the design of conventional reinforced concrete, diagonally reinforced concrete, steel, and composite steel‐concrete coupling beams Although not exhaustive, critical aspects of the design of these systems are presented

Thomas Paulay

Papers

Earthquake-Resisting Shearwalls - New Zealand DesignTrends