The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

An evaluation of the design and analytical seismic response of a seven-story reinforced concrete frame-wall structure

Charney, Finley A.; Bertero, Vitelmo V.

UCB/EERC-82/08, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1982-08, 196 pages (530/C472/1982)

This report describes the analytical studies regarding the response of a reinforced concrete test building that have been conducted at the Univ. of California, Berkeley, as part of a U.S.-Japan cooperative research program on the behavior of structures subjected to earthquake-induced loading. This work, which begins with a review of the prototype design in accord with the 1979 Uniform Building Code specifications for seismic-resistant buildings, shows that, while the test building, a 1/5-scale model of a seven-story reinforced concrete frame-wall structure, does not satisfy all code specifications, it can be considered to be a good design from the point of view of the strong column-weak beam philosophy. The elastic properties of the structure are investigated through the use of flexibility matrices; the inelastic response of the structure to monotonically increasing lateral loads is studied; and a nonlinear dynamic analysis which uses the computer program DRAIN-2D is presented that indicates that the response of the test building to different recorded ground motions is governed by the behavior of the centrally located shear wall. In order to obtain an understanding of the response of the structure to the ground motions, the authors consider detailed analysis of the response for the duration of pulses inducing maximum response. Errors that occur in the response due to modeling procedures are discussed and methods are suggested for improved analysis.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-82-08.pdf (54 MB)