The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Hysteretic behavior of reinforced concrete framed walls

Wang, Tsan Y.; Bertero, Vitelmo V.; Popov, Egor P.

UCB/EERC-75/23, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1975-12, 367 pages (515/W3/1975)

Two identical three-story framed wall specimens, representing the lower portion of a ten-story framed wall building, were tested under monotonic and cyclic loading to study the behavior of the walls under seismic excitations. One-third-scale models of the specimens were used. The code-designed building consisted of ductile moment-resisting frames with two framed walls in the north-south direction and four framed walls in the east-west direction. Its floor system consisted of a flat reinforced concrete slab. To simulate the boundary condition of the prototype wall as well as to transfer uniformly the applied shear force through the whole width of the wall, a portion of the flat slab was cast with the wall specimen. Shear force, axial force, and bending moment were applied to simulate the effects of gravity loads and earthquake excitations on the prototype. After incipient failure, each specimen was repaired to study the effectiveness of the repairing technique. Free vibration tests were carried out to determine the critical damping ratio and the frequency of vibration of each specimen before and after loading them to different levels of damage. Based on the mechanical behavior of the wall element, nonlinear dynamic analyses were carried out to study the response of the prototype building under different ground excitations. Experimental and analytical results were conducted. Present code design methods for wall and wall-frame systems are assessed. Recommendations for designing the wall against shear failure and for improving present methods of designing dual bracing systems are also offered.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-75-23.pdf (25 MB)