Comparative Numerical Study on Efficiency of Various Energy Dissipating Devices Used in Hybrid Post-tensioned Shear Wall

Abstract

Conventional shear walls as a lateral-load resisting system have the disadvantage of getting damaged during severe earthquake shaking and can only be used after repair. This violates the philosophy of sustainable development, which is a critical aspect of the modern socio-economic scenario. To overcome this problem, shear walls are integrated with the post-tensioned (PT) tendons and are referred to as “PT shear walls.” Since the PT tendons remain elastic, the PT shear walls undergo rocking motion over the base and regain the original position after the seismic event; thus, the wall posses self–centering behaviour. Thus, they are reusable even after such events, and the downtime of the structure is minimal, thereby fulfilling the goal of resilient and sustainable development. However, the problem with the PT shear walls is that they have low energy dissipation capacity, owing to their elastic rocking behaviour. For energy dissipation, PT shear walls are fitted with additional energy dissipating devices and are known as “hybrid PT shear walls.” Conventionally the dissipating devices are placed internally, which solves the issue of low energy dissipation; however, it makes the shear wall weaker after an earthquake, and the replacement of dissipating devices is not possible. Therefore, recently the hybrid walls are fitted with dissipating devices externally, which provides good energy dissipation and the benefit of ease of replacement. Although several dissipating devices have been used in the past in various civil engineering applications, their suitability in hybrid PT shear walls is not available in the literature. Therefore, the present study aims at assessing the comparative response of these dissipating devices subjected to axial monotonic and cyclic loading through finite element (FE) analyses.