Parametric studies on reinforced concrete shear walls: An engineering response to Einstein's riddle?

摘要

This paper presents a new equation proposed for the prediction of shear strength of shear wall panels of normal- and high-strength concrete. A computer simulator was developed and used for obtaining a rich pool of data by analyzing a wide range of different shear walls. Contributions of parameters such as concrete strength, height-to-length ratio, axial load, horizontal reinforcement, and vertical reinforcement were considered. A previously developed event simulator was used to simulate hundreds of full-scale shear wall tests with different parameters. Tens of different equations were considered based on those currently used in major codes, with different combinations of terms used in the equations. Then, using an optimization process, the best proposed equation was chosen by finding the best fit to the pool of data obtained from analyt-ical results of the simulator. The newly proposed equation was then compared with predictions by existing codes using available experimental data found in the literature. Based on calculations of mean value and standard deviation for the ratios of predicted shear strength to experimental values, it was found that the newly proposed equation predicts the shear strength of shear walls better than equations previously proposed by design codes.