Structural Walls (structural + wall)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Initial stiffness of reinforced concrete structural walls with irregular openings

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS, Issue 4 2010
Bing Li
Abstract Reinforced concrete (RC) structural walls with openings are the primary lateral-load-carrying elements utilized in many structures designed to resist earthquakes. A review of the technical literature shows that there is a considerable amount of uncertainty with regards to the elastic stiffness of these structures when subjected to seismic excitations. Current design practices often employ a stiffness reduction factor to deal with this uncertainty. In an attempt to develop additional information regarding the stiffness of these structures, this paper discusses an approach to determine the initial stiffness of RC structural walls with irregular openings and low aspect ratios. This approach would consider the effect of both flexural and shear deformations. As a part of this study, an analytical approach to determine stiffness was also developed and validated by comparing theoretical and experimental results obtained from six RC shear walls with irregular openings. Simple equations for assessing initial stiffness of RC structural walls with irregular openings are then proposed, based on these parametric case studies. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Numerical modelling for earthquake engineering: the case of lightly RC structural walls

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 7-8 2004
J. Mazars
Abstract Different types of numerical models exist to describe the non-linear behaviour of reinforced concrete structures. Based on the level of discretization they are often classified as refined or simplified ones. The efficiency of two simplified models using beam elements and damage mechanics in describing the global and local behaviour of lightly reinforced concrete structural walls subjected to seismic loadings is investigated in this paper. The first model uses an implicit and the second an explicit numerical scheme. For each case, the results of the CAMUS 2000 experimental programme are used to validate the approaches. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]