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Modelling Approaches for Inelastic Behaviour of RC Walls: Multi-level Assessment and Dependability of Results

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Abstract

The severe damage and collapse of many reinforced concrete (RC) wall buildings in the recent earthquakes of Chile (2010) and New Zealand (2011) have shown that RC walls did not perform as well as required by the modern codes of both countries. It seems therefore appropriate to intensify research efforts towards more accurate simulations of damage indicators, in particular local engineering demand parameters such as material strains, which are central to the application of performance-based earthquake engineering. Potential modelling improvements will necessarily build on a thorough assessment of the limitations of current state-of-the-practice simulation approaches for RC wall buildings. This work compares different response parameters obtained from monotonic analyses of RC walls using numerical tools that are commonly employed by researchers and specialized practitioners, namely: plastic hinge analyses, distributed plasticity models, and shell element models. It is shown that a multi-level assessment—wherein both the global and local levels of the response are jointly addressed during pre- and post-peak response—is fundamental to define the dependability of the results. The displacement demand up to which the wall response can be predicted is defined as the first occurrence between the attainment of material strain limits and numerical issues such as localization. The present work also presents evidence to discourage the application of performance-based assessment of RC walls relying on non-regularized strain EDPs.

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Notes

  1. Proposals for plastic hinge analyses wherein shear displacements are accounted for will be analysed in the present document.

  2. Due to numerical issues, the Basic model does not reach the steel MSL.

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Acknowledgments

The work was financially supported by the Stiftung zur Förderung der Denkmalpflege in the framework of the project ‘Erbebenverhalten von bestehenden Stahlbetongebäuden mit dünnen Wänden’. The authors would like to thank the invaluable support provided by Prof. Frank Vecchio, from the University of Toronto, regarding the use of software VecTor2. The suggestions given by Prof. Rui Pinho, who thoroughly reviewed the manuscript, and by Prof. Sri Sritharan, are also kindly acknowledged. Finally, a word of gratitude goes to Hugues Vincent for the work carried out during his internship at the Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics Laboratory, in École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics Laboratory (EESD), School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), EPFL ENAC IIC EESD, GC B2 484, Station 18, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    João Pacheco Almeida

  2. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics Laboratory (EESD), School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), EPFL ENAC IIC EESD, GC B2 514, Station 18, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Danilo Tarquini

  3. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics Laboratory (EESD), School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), EPFL ENAC IIC EESD, GC B2 504, Station 18, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Katrin Beyer

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  1. João Pacheco Almeida
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Correspondence to João Pacheco Almeida.

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Almeida, J.P., Tarquini, D. & Beyer, K. Modelling Approaches for Inelastic Behaviour of RC Walls: Multi-level Assessment and Dependability of Results. Arch Computat Methods Eng 23, 69–100 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11831-014-9131-y

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