Nonlinear behavior of RC shear walls: From experiments to the field reports

Abstract

Post-earthquake damage evaluation has indicated that although the buildings with shear walls exhibited an appropriate overall performance in the recent severe earthquakes, in some cases, however, the columns and the shear walls were damaged, due to the presence of short structural elements and inadequate transverse reinforcement. Such memories amongst engineers have promoted this attitude that the shear walls structures exhibit a brittle overall performance. So the conviction that shear walls are inherently brittle still prevails amongst engineers, and therefore, they usually prefer to choose moment-resisting RC frames without shear walls. For getting an insight into the nonlinear behavior of RC shear walls, we have reviewed the experiments conducted on the RC shear walls. Besides, through using the post-earthquake reports written after major earthquakes, we have checked and scrutinized the seismic performance of RC frames equipped with shear walls too. Investigations performed on the nonlinear behavior of the shear walls have demonstrated that slender shear walls, designed to fail in flexural mode, could safely dissipate excitations energy of the earthquakes. These studies also revealed that even squat shear walls can be designed in a way that their behavior would be similar to those of the slender walls. Considering these matters, designed shear walls according to the recent codes maintain sufficient shear strength and respectable energy dissipation capability.