Study on a new shear wall system with shaking table test and finite element analysis

Abstract

SUMMARYA new seismic energy dissipation shear wall structure is proposed in this paper. The new shear wall is one with purposely built-in vertical slits within the wall panel, and rubber belts as seismic energy dissipation devices are installed in the vertical slits. In order to verify this concept, shaking table tests of a 10-storey shear wall model with rubber belts "lled in the vertical slits were carried out, and comparison of seismic behaviour was made between the new shear wall system and a shear wall with reinforced concrete connecting beams as energy dissipation. Furthermore, the seismic behaviour of this new shear wall is analysed by a "nite element time history analysis method. The test and analysis show that the new shear wall system has a very good ability to dissipate seismic energy and is easy to use in engineering practice. INTRODUCTIONIn order to prevent the brittle damages of shear walls and improve their property of dissipating seismic energy, the concept of slit shear wall, a new seismic energy dissipation system, has been proposed during the recent years [1}6]. A slit shear wall is one with purposely built-in vertical slits which divide the shear wall into two narrower wall units connected by shear transfer interfaces (see Figure 1). The shear transfer interfaces between adjacent wall units are generally of three types: (1) reinforced concrete connecting beams; (2) some elastic materials with low elastic modulus and high deformation capacity such as rubber belts; and (3) various dampers, such as rubber dampers, spring dampers, etc. The working mechanism of this shear wall has been described in previous papers [1}6], and a series of static [2}4] and dynamic tests [6] have been carried out at the University of Hong Kong and Tongji University. Lu et al. [7] have introduced the shaking table tests of a 10-storey shear wall model (DM1) which has reinforced concrete connecting beams as shear transfer interfaces. Lu et al. [7] have described the dynamic analysis method for model DM1, and have performed some parametric study for this shear wall system. This paper will describe the shaking table tests of a new 10-storey shear wall model (DM2) which has rubber belts and reinforcements as shear transfer interfaces. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to further study the seismic behaviour and energy dissipation mechanism of the new shear wall system by shaking table tests and "nite element time history analysis method. DESCRIPTION OF SHAKING TABLE TESTIn order to verify the analysis method and to study the seismic energy dissipation mechanism of the new shear wall system, one reinforced-concrete shear wall model was constructed and tested. It was 1/5 scale model of a typical 10-storey shear wall structure having a height/width ratio of 5.6. The model consists of two pieces of 40 mm thick walls connected by slabs at each #oor level and four foundation beams for "xing the model onto the shaking table. Each wall has rubber belts "lled in the vertical slits (see Figure 1) as shear transfer interface...

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“…For instance in Bucharest, during the 1977 Vrancea (Romania) earthquake, these buildings showed a high seismic vulnerability: one building with cast in situ reinforced concrete structural walls totally collapsed, seven other buildings suffered partial collapse, 19 were significantly damaged and 72 (Muto et al, 1973), (b) slit panel with strips anchored in beams (Liou and Sheu, 1998), (c) precast panel with strips assembled by post-stressing (Pavlik and Vasionkin, 1976), (d) cast in situ slit wall with a slit zone with short connections (Kwan et al, 1999), (e) cast in situ slit wall with rubber belts inserted in slit zone (Lu and Wu, 2000) and (f) cast in situ reinforced concrete slit walls with a variable number of slits on height (Sabouri and Ziyaeifar, 2009) Reinforced concrete slit walls were moderately damaged. Some of the reasons of the collapses were the inadequate wall density, the inadequate amount and detailing of the wall reinforcement and the lack of confinement in the boundary elements (Bostenaru and Sandu, 2002).…”

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