The cyclic response of reinforced concrete shear walls

The cyclic response of reinforced concrete shear walls has been studied by various investigators and several numerical algorithms have been proposed to model their behaviour. This study develops a seismic performance-based analysis based on such an algorithm. A numerical algorithm is proposed and is implemented into a non-linear explicit finite element analysis program (LS-DYNA). The numerical formulation is based on readily available material parameters - such as cube strength and reinforcement percentage. The numerical results are correlated against published physical test results for quasi-static pushover and cyclic tests and a dynamic shake test. The complex cyclic behaviour is reduced to a simplified model that mimics the test results but includes consideration of mechanisms such as reinforcement yielding and concrete cracking, etc. The results are presented in terms of performance-based criteria. An application of the analytical approach to a design example is presented.