A Parametric Study on the Effects of Shear Wall Locations in a Typical Five-Story Reinforced Concrete Structure Subjected to a Severe Earthquake

Abstract

To minimize earthquake-induced damages in structures, one of the most reliable ways to design and construct earthquake-resistant buildings is to utilize reinforced concrete shear walls because they increase the structural resistance to lateral loads and effectively stiffens and strengthens the structure. This is known as the best seismic-resistant design method that ensures the stability of multi-story buildings against lateral forces when subjected to strong earthquakes. This paper investigates the effects of the shear wall location in a typical low-rise building to improve earthquake resistance. The study initially models a five-story reinforced concrete structure without shear walls and then adds shear walls at different locations in the structure. SAP2000 is used to perform dynamic analysis under the 1994 Northridge earthquake, an example of severe seismic excitation. Response modal nonlinear time-history dynamic analysis is utilized to obtain an accurate representation of the structure’s behavior. The response of the building with and without shear walls is analyzed and compared for various locations of the shear walls in the structure. Study results show that shear walls effectively reduce horizontal displacements and story drifts to achieve compliance with seismic design codes. The use of shear walls also significantly reduces shear stresses, bending moments, and displacements of various members of the structure. Numerical values and maximum percent of possible changes in the design parameter are reported in the paper. Various seismic demands of the elastic models (with and without shear walls) have been evaluated and compared. The presented work claims that shear walls effectively reduce shear stresses. It is a fact that increasing the stiffness of the structure in severe seismic zones could simultaneously attract more seismic forces, and if the reinforcement is not detailed appropriately, it could reduce the ductility of the structure. The structural elements, including frame elements and the shear walls are inelastic.