Aspects of drift and ductility capacity of rectangular cantilever structural walls

Abstract

Moment-curvature analyses of cantilever shear walls are used to show that yield curvature, serviceability curvature, and ultimate (damage-control) curvature are insensitive to variations of axial load ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio, and distribution of longitudinal reinforcement. The results are used to determine available displacement ductility factors for walls of different aspect ratios and drift limits. It is shown that drift capacity will generally exceed code levels of permissible drift, and that code drift limits will normally restrict, sometimes severely, the design displacement ductility factor.