A New Procedure for Determination of Lateral In-plane Failure Modes of Reinforced Concrete Squat Shear Walls

Abstract

Reinforced concrete squat shear walls (RCSSWs) are structural elements commonly used in low-rise buildings and as bridge pier-walls and building basement walls. RCSSWs lateral in-plane failure modes are diagonal tension, diagonal compression, and sliding shear, where all are shear dominant. Determination of these failure modes is especially required for seismic design and evaluation of RCSSWs. A new procedure for such determination is introduced based on modeling the wall as a two-dimensional cracked reinforced concrete element modeled using the disturbed stress field model. This procedure considers the stress states of concrete and main rebars according to the shear dominant lateral nature of each failure mode of RCSSWs. The main stress-related behavioral indicators and their selected thresholds are presented. The accuracy and robustness of the proposed failure mode determination procedure is tested against 12 experimental cyclic test results. High accuracy and robustness are observed for determining different lateral in-plane failure modes of RCSSWs.