Short coupling beams in wall structures work predominantly in shear and develop complex deformation patterns. For this reason they cannot be modelled based on the classical plane-sections-remain-plane hypothesis, and are typically designed with strut-and-tie models. However, because strut-and-tie models are inherently conservative, they can result in very large amounts of shear reinforcement (stirrups), and therefore significant construction difficulties. In addition, strut-and-tie models do not provide information about the deformation capacity of coupling beams, which is important for performance-based seismic design. To address these challenges, this paper discusses a three-parameter kinematic theory (3PKT) for the shear strength and deformation patterns of short coupling beams. The 3PKT approach is situated between simple and conservative strut-and-tie models and complex non-linear finite element (FE) models. While FE models use a large number of degrees of freedom (DOFs) to describe the deformation patterns in coupling beams, the 3PKT method is based on a kinematic model with only three DOFs. The paper presents the formulation of the model and its validation with tests.
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