Pushover Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Wall-Frame Structures Using Equivalent Column Model

Abstract

RC shear wall sections which have irregular shapes such as T, ㄱ, ㄷ sections are typically used in low-rise buildings in Korea. Pushover analysis of building containing such members costs a lot of computation time and needs professional knowledge since it requires complicated modeling and, sometimes, fails to converge. In this study, a method using an equivalent column element for the shear wall is proposed. The equivalent column element consists of an elastic column, an inelastic rotational spring, and rigid beams. The inelastic properties of the rotational spring represent the nonlinear behavior of the shearwall and are obtained from the section analysis results and moment distribution for the member. The use of an axial force to compensate the difference in the axial deformation between the equivalent column element and the actual shear wall is also proposed. The proposed method is applied for the pushover analysis of a 5-story shear wall-frame building and the results are compared with ones using the fiber elements. The comparison shows that the inelastic behavior at the same drift was comparable. However, the performance points estimated using the pushover curves showed some deviations, which seem to be caused by the differences of estimated yield point and damping ratios.