Sliding Deformation Model for Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls under Seismic Loading

Abstract

Accounting for all possible failure modes in seismic design and construction of reinforced concrete shear walls is important to ensure that the expected seismic performance of the building structures is attained. Sliding is a shear wall failure mode that can occur at flexural cracks or at cold joints. For example, significant sliding was observed at a four-story reinforced concrete building tested on the E-Defense shaking table. Whyte, Synge and Luna observed and examined sliding failure in their squat shear wall tests. In earthquake engineering, the sliding resistance on a crack in a reinforced concrete structural element is defined by simple equations in nearly all modern codes (EC8, ACI 318-1, fib-Model Code 2010). These equations have been developed for crack sizes occurring at serviceability performance levels and modified for use in seismic design. Large crack widths, which are common under earthquake loads, are not explicitly considered. This article presents a sliding resistance and deformation model for reinforced concrete shear walls. This model includes the interaction between the concrete and the reinforcement and complies with the equilibrium of forces and the compatibility of deformations at each point in the sliding process. At the core of the model is a plastic micro-model that characterises the interlocking process of the aggregate on an existing crack. Depending on the concrete strength, the compression stress, and the roughness of the crack surface, the force transferred across the crack is determined for any displacement and any crack width. The model is validated against a seriesof sliding tests on compact sliding specimens.