Behavior of coupled walls with high performance fiber reinforced concrete coupling beams

Abstract

Coupling beams have great effect on the behavior of coupled shear wall systems under lateral loads. Therefore, coupling beams are reinforced by complicated reinforcement, in the form of diagonal bars and confinement reinforcement, however, creates construction difficulties. Because of the shallow angle of diagonal reinforcement, (less than 20) with respect to the beam longitudinal axis, in slender coupling beams where beam’s aspect ratio is around 3.0, the effect of this reinforcement is questionable. The purpose of this research is to study the effect of using tensile strain-hardening, high-performance fiber reinforced concrete (HPFRC) in the coupling beams. A nonlinear static analysis was performed using the Applied Element Method investigating the effect of coupling beam with HPFRC. After validating the analysis with previously tested specimens, a parametric study was carried out. The results showed that using of HPFRC can provide higher capacity with enhanced energy dissipation more than traditional reinforced concrete.