Theoretical Study on Steel Reinforced Concrete Hybrid Walls with Centered and Staggered Openings

Abstract

Buildings placed in seismic areas are designed to simultaneously ensure strength, ductility and stiffness during earthquakes. In most cases the lateral resisting system is composed by shear walls. Lately for mid and high rise buildings the solution to use steel reinforced concrete shear walls, called hybrid walls, has been used. In most cases, the shear walls provided to limit the lateral displacement of the buildings, need to have openings due to architectural requirements. The existing theoretical and experimental studies presented in the literature refer to the behavior of solid/plain walls and a lack of information was identified for hybrid walls with openings. A theoretical and experimental program was developed at Politehnica University Timisoara, Romania with the aim to study the behavior of hybrid walls with centered and staggered openings. The current paper presents the results of nonlinear finite element analyses using ATENA package performed in order to assess the structural capabilities of the proposed experimental specimens with openings. Using the results obtained in one previous experimental program, consisting in tests on 1:3 scale steel-concrete composite elements, the paper presents a comparative study regarding the behavior of hybrid walls with openings versus solid walls. The study is focused on nonlinear behavior of elements with key parameters being evaluated, i.e. maximum load, deformation capacity and stiffens degradation.