Abstract
Reverse cyclic lateral testing was undertaken to investigate the seismic behavior of 1/4 scale steel-plate concrete (SC) composite walls. The experimental program involved seven SC wall pier specimens. A new chamber structure is proposed, using steel diaphragms to connect the two steel faceplates to each other and to divide the SC wall pier into two parts. Conventional wall specimens failed mainly by tensile fracture of the concrete at the junction of the wall side and wall base, crushing of the concrete at the toe of the wall, or buckling of the steel faceplate. Tearing of the welded joints at the steel faceplates and steel diaphragm, buckling of steel, steel diaphragms being pulled out, tensile fracture and crushing of the concrete were the main failure modes of the chamber structure walls. A parametric numerical analysis in ABAQUS was developed to investigate the effects of the stiffening rib, steel web amount, material strength, shear-span ratio, and axial compression ratio on the seismic response of SC walls. The chamber structure of the SC wall piers can improve the peak load, ductility, and energy-dissipating capacity. The steel faceplate thickness and stiffening ribs can improve the behavior of SC wall piers.
Highlights
Reactor containment structures for reactor-cavities in nuclear power plants have a variety of forms, including steel structures, reinforced concrete walls, prestressed reinforced concrete walls and other composite structures
The results showed that the post-peak load behavior of the walls was influenced by the faceplate slenderness ratio, with a smaller rate of post peak load degradation observed in the wall with the smallest faceplate slenderness ratio
The results showed that the static ultimate bearing capacity, under which the stud connector was pulled out from the damaged reinforced concrete, was much larger than the cyclic ultimate bearing capacity, at which the weld joint between stud and steel plate fractured
Summary
Reactor containment structures for reactor-cavities in nuclear power plants have a variety of forms, including steel structures, reinforced concrete walls, prestressed reinforced concrete walls and other composite structures. & Varma, 2014; Varma et al, 2014), axial compression loading (Fukumoto et al, 1987; Usami et al, 1995; Takeuchi et al, 1998; Wright, 1998; Choi & Han, 2009; Zhang et al, 2014; Huang & Liew, 2016), impact loading (Remennikov et al, 2013; Sohel & Liew, 2014; Zhao & Guo, 2018), and analysis and design for combined thermal and mechanical loading (Booth et al, 2007; Varma et al, 2009, 2011a; Eom et al, 2009; Epackachi et al, 2013, 2015a), and Kurt et al (2016) tested SC walls under cyclic lateral loading to investigate the load-carrying capacity, ductility, and the effects of varying wall type, wall thickness, cross-sectional shape, reinforcement ratio, stud spacing, tie bar spacing, and strengthening methods at the wall base on the shearing response. The following sections describe the experimental program, testing phenomenon, and key experimental and parametric results
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