RC bearing walls are one of the most common primary lateral and gravity load carrying systems in U.S. building practice. Severe exposure to fire can compromise the out-of-plane stability of these walls under service-level gravity loads, causing catastrophic overall or disproportionately large failure of the structure. Considering these issues, the authors are conducting a project with the overall objective of developing experimental and analytical evidence to demonstrate the structural design and performance of RC walls under fire. Eight full scale wall fire tests are scheduled to be completed as part of this project. This paper describes the finite element modeling of the full scale concrete wall structures, and initial pilot experiments conducted to validate the modeling approaches. The results of the finite element simulations will be paired with the experimental results of full scale walls to develop a predictive fire-resistant structural design procedure for the walls.
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