Modeling and testing influence of scaling effects on inelastic response of shear walls

Abstract

Monotonic and cyclic quasi-static testing was performed on ductile reinforced concrete shear-wall specimens designed and detailed according to the seismic provisions of the National Building Code of Canada and CSA-A23.3-04. The tests were carried out on full-scale and 1:2.37 reduced-scale wall specimens. The behavior under cyclic loading was characterized by ductile flexural response up to a displacement ductility of 4.0. At this deformation level, inelastic shear deformations in the plastic hinge contributed to approximately 20% of the total deformation. In the subsequent cycles, strength degradation took place due to shear sliding developing along the large flexural cracks at the wall base. Shear sliding was not observed under monotonic loading and the specimens exhibited significantly higher ductility capacity. Excellent agreement was found between prototype and reduced-scale walls. The inelastic response and failure mode observed under cyclic loading could be adequately reproduced using a finite element analysis program. Simpler models with frame elements and lumped plastic hinges could capture the wall flexural response well, but shear deformations could not be reproduced. Copyright © 2009, American Concrete Institute.