Experimental and numerical analyses of seismic behavior of concrete shear wall with opening accompanied by steel frame and eccentric encased steel braces

Abstract

Reinforced concrete shear walls with the steel reinforced concrete frames is a common lateral force resisting structural system that is applied high-rise steel buildings in various forms. In this study, seismic behavior of two reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls with openings accompanied by steel reinforced concrete (SRC) on scale of 1/3 were investigated. One of the shear walls consisted of a steel truss reinforced concrete (STRC) with a specified eccentricity in each story level and its end was connected to the bracing’s steel beam. Both of the shear walls were coincidentally subjected to specific constant gravity load and cyclic load. Behavior assessment of shear walls included determination of the failure mode cracking pattern, loading capacity, strength, stiffness and dissipated energy with respect to generated deformations. Results revealed that the shear wall with encased steel brace (ESB) was more effective in terms of all the mentioned parameters compared to SRC wall. In the following, pushover curves for shear walls were investigated using finite element (FE) models and confidentiality of analytical models and prediction of behavior of these walls were verified based on real prototypes. Finally, effects of axial gravity load variations on FE models of both shear walls were evaluated. This study can be useful in applied structural engineering because of applying eccentric braces in openings of a reinforced composite shear wall.