Numerical Study of the Tensile Experiments Modelling the Elongation Degree of Highly-Reinforced Extreme Edges of Seismic Walls for Studying the Transverse Buckling Phenomenon

Abstract

AbstractIn the framework of the present study, the influence of the elongation degree on the phenomenon of out-of-plane buckling of reinforced concrete walls is examined. The present investigation is mainly analytical but it contains experimental results of 4 test specimens published by the first author in the past. These specimens simulate the extreme boundary edges of structural walls. All columns simulate only the extreme reinforced areas of the walls, in order to study the basic mechanism of the phenomenon. The detailing of the specimens consists of 4 rebars with a diameter of 12 mm for each bar. The geometric dimensions are the same for all specimens. What differentiates the specimens from each other is the degree of tension they have sustained. More specifically, the tensile degrees used are 10, 20, 30, 50‰. The loading stages of each specimen for all specimens are as follows: (a) Uniaxial central tensile loading on each test specimen, (b) Uniaxial central compression loading on each specimen till its failure due to buckling or due to an excess of its cross-section compressive strength. The present study focuses on the tensile loading stage only. Extreme tensile strains are also used, e.g., 30 and 50‰, to take into account the cases of extreme seismic excitations. First, the experimental results from a previous publication are presented and afterwards they are followed by the numerical investigation of these 4 specimens using an appropriate finite element framework. Useful conclusions are drawn regarding the precision of the experimental tests investigating the influence of the degree of elongation on the phenomenon of transverse buckling. These conclusions are substantiated both experimentally and analytically, since the results of the tensile experiments are compared with the corresponding results of the analytical investigation.KeywordsNumerical studyElongation degreeTransverse buckling