Seismic behavior of slab-structural wall junction of RC building

Abstract

In high seismic zone regions, slender reinforced concrete structural walls are commonly used in high-rise buildings as a main lateral load resisting element. These walls are very effective in limiting the lateral drift of the building due to their large in-plane stiffness. However, the presence of floor slabs influences the behavior of the shear wall. Also, the current design requirements do not account for the presence of floor slabs. To understand the behavior of wall-slab junctions and address the shortcomings of the current design requirements, the influence of two parameters, namely (a) aspect ratio and (b) longitudinal reinforcement ratio on the behavior is studied numerically. It is observed that the presence of floor slabs at different levels tends to partition the wall into squat wall panels between two consecutive floors. The wall-slab junctions show large stress concentrations arising from the strut action in the squat panels. It is also observed that the floor slabs can get significantly damaged near the wall-slab junction for lower vertical reinforcement ratios in the wall. Thus, the current code-prescribed minimum reinforcement in shear walls is not sufficient and needs to be revisited at for improved performance.