NEHRP Clearinghouse
- Title
- Earthquake Resistant Structural Walls - Tests of Walls With and Without Openings.
- File
- PB82131947.pdf
- Author(s)
- Shiu, K. N.; Daniel, J. I.; Aristizabal-Ochoa, J. D.; Fiorato, A. E.; Corley, W. G.
- Source
- National Science Foundation, Washington, DC., July 1981, 126 p.
- Abstract
- The effects of structural wall window openings on strength, deformation capacity, and energy dissipation capacity were determined and evaluated. Two one-third scale, six-story wall specimens were subjected to inelastic load reversals representing severe earthquake forces exerted by double acting hydraulic rams, located on both sides of the wall specimens, and applied to the top of each wall. The specimens were designed of earthquake resistant reinforced concrete wall elements in coupled wall systems based on the 1976 Uniform Building Code. The loading was calculated using a modified DRAIN two-dimensional computer program with two actual earthquake records used as input ground motion data. One specimen was a solid wall and the other included six openings simulating windows. When data was normalized by yield capacities, the response of the two walls to the inelastic loading was similar. The presence of window openings had little effect on the deformation characteristics of the sample walls in response to the cyclic loads. The solid wall failed through sliding shear along a horizontal crack that developed at the first-story level, while the pierced wall failed through shear-compression at the boundary elements.
- Keywords
- Earthquake resistant structures; Reinforced concrete; Windows; Walls; Structural design; Computer applications; Buildings; Earthquake engineering; Dynamic tests; DRAIN computer program; Concrete construction; Dynamic structural analysis