Influence of axial load ratio and eccentricity on the cyclic response of non-rectangular walls through beam-truss models

Details

Supervisors

Saraiva Esteves Pacheco De Almeida, João ; Correia, Antonio ; Hoult, Ryan

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil des constructions, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

Seismic actions cause serious damage and cracking to reinforced concrete structural walls which leads to a large decrease of their stiffness. Various design codes determine such reduced stiffness, commonly known as effective stiffness, by fixed values obtained from experiments on rectangular walls. Those with a different shape behave differently, making their effective stiffness assessment by the codes inaccurate. Moreover, a precise estimation of factors influencing this reduction factor is still largely unknown. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effective stiffness of non-rectangular walls by using the beam-truss model theory. An efficient and stable beam-truss model has been studied to model twelve walls of four different shapes, loaded in various directions. The reduced stiffness of those walls has then been determined by two main definitions and compared to values given by design codes. Eventually, the influence of axial load ratio and eccentricity on the effective stiffness has been investigated.