DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF AN ANALYTICAL MODEL TO PREDICT THE INELASTIC SEISMIC BEHAVIOR OF SHEAR WALL, REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDINGS

摘要

The development of an analytical model to predict the inelastic seismic response of reinforced concrete shear wall buildings, including both the flexural mode and the shear mode of failure, is presented. The use of shear wall buildings is quite common in Chile; their seismic behavior has been successful during past severe earthquakes, both from the serviceability requirements and the prevention of collapse points of view. However, construction practice in recent years has shown a tendency to reduce the amount of walls, with consequences that cannot be optimistic, since researchers that studied the behavior of Chilean buildings during the 1985 earthquake concluded that the amount walls present in most of these buildings was just enough to obtain the very good performance they exhibited. One efficient way to clarify the doubts about the seismic behavior of these buildings is to develop a computer model to predict such a behavior. To achieve this objective a shear mode of failure model based on experimental results has been plugged into a computer program that could already predict the inelastic seismic behavior of buildings associated to the flexural mode of failure of the structural elements, in such a way that a shear or a flexural mode of failure may be predicted by the computer program depending on the relative strength of each wall associated to these modes of failure. The paper discusses the most relevant problems and solutions devised during the development of this model. Preliminary results showing the behavior of buildings as a whole and of individual shear walls are also presented.