System-Level Seismic Performance Assessment of an Asymmetrical Reinforced Concrete Block Shear Wall Building
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 12
Abstract
In this study, a two-story reinforced concrete block scaled building was tested to failure under fully reversed quasi-static displacement-controlled loading. The building’s seismic force-resisting system (SFRS) consisted of eight structural walls in total, with four walls, aligned along the loading direction, placed asymmetrically to result in a center of rigidity eccentricity from the floor center of mass of approximately 20% of the building width, evaluated on the basis of elastic analysis. The other four orthogonal walls were placed symmetrically around the building floor center of mass to provide torsional restraints to the building. As such, the focus of the paper is on evaluating the influence of twist as a system-level aspect on the ductility capacity of the building and the ductility and strength demands of its wall components. This paper presents the details of the building SFRS and wall configurations and characteristics and the main test observations and results. This is followed by analyses of the experimental results that showed that, at the system level, each wall would be subjected to significantly different displacement/strength demands throughout the building’s loading history. These different demand levels are functions of the interaction between the system-level twist response and the resulting displacement demands imposed on each wall component and the subsequent load redistribution following different component damage. The study showed that the variation in the inelastic response characteristics of the different walls comprising the building’s SFRS and wall strength contributions to the overall building capacity and the subsequently mobilized ductility levels are all factors that should be considered when evaluating the overall building SFRS performance.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
Financial support for this project was provided through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. Support was also provided by the McMaster University Centre for Effective Design of Structures (CEDS), funded through the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund (ORDCF) of the Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI). Provision of mason time by the Ontario Masonry Contractors Association (OMCA) and Canada Masonry Design Centre (CMDC) is appreciated. The provision of the scaled blocks through a grant from the Canadian Concrete Masonry Producers Association (CCMPA) is gratefully acknowledged.
References
Abboud, B. E., Hamid, A. A., and Harris, H. G. (1990). “Small-scale modeling of concrete block masonry structures.” ACI Struct. J., 87(2), 145–155.
Abrams, D. (1986). “Measured hysteresis in a masonry building system.” Proc., 3rd U.S. Conf. on Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Oakland, CA.
ASCE. (2010). “Minimum design loads for buildings and other structures.”, Reston, VA.
Banting, B., and El-Dakhakhni, W. W. (2012). “Force- and displacement-based seismic performance parameters for reinforced masonry structural walls with boundary elements.” J. Struct. Eng., 1477–1491.
Banting, B., and El-Dakhakhni, W. W. (2014). “Seismic performance quantification of reinforced masonry structural walls with boundary elements.” J. Struct. Eng., 04014001.
Banting, B., Heerema, P., and El-Dakhakhni, W. W. (2010). “Production and testing of ⅓ scale concrete blocks.” Proc., 8th Int. Masonry Conf., International Masonry Society, Surrey, U.K.
Cohen, G. L., Klinger, R. L., Hayes Jr., J. R., and Sweeny, S. C. (2004). “Seismic evaluation of low-rise reinforced masonry buildings with flexible diaphragms I. Seismic and quasi-static testing.” Earthquake Spectra, 20(3), 779–801.
CSA (Canadian Standards Association). (2014a). “CSA standards on concrete masonry units.”, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
CSA (Canadian Standards Association). (2014b). “Design of masonry structures.”, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
Deierlein, G., Reinhorn, M., and Willford, M. (2010). “Nonlinear structural analysis for seismic design.”, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD.
Harris, H., and Sabnis, G. (1999). Structural modeling and experimental techniques, 2nd Ed., CRC Press, London.
Heerema, P., Shedid, M., and El-Dakhakhni, W. (2014a). “Response of a reinforced concrete block shear wall structure to simulated earthquake loading.” 9th Int. Masonry Conf., International Masonry Society, Surrey, U.K.
Heerema, P., Shedid, M., and El-Dakhakhni, W. (2014b). “Seismic response analysis of a reinforced concrete block shear wall asymmetric building.” J. Struct. Eng., 04014178.
MSJC (Masonry Standards Joint Committee). (2013). “Building code requirements for masonry structures.”, Reston, VA.
National Research Council Canada (NRC). (2010). National building code of Canada 2010, Institute for Research in Construction, National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, Ottawa.
Park, R., and Paulay, R. (1975). Reinforced concrete structures, Wiley, New York.
Paulay, T. (1999). “A simple seismic design strategy based on displacement and ductility compatibility.” Earthquake Eng. Seismolog., 1(1), 51–67.
Paulay, T., and Priestley, M. J. N. (1992). Seismic design of reinforced concrete and masonry buildings, Wiley, New York.
Priestley, M. J. N., Calvi, G. M., and Kowalsky, M. (2007). Displacement-based seismic design of structures, IUSS, Pavia, Italy.
Seible, F., Hegemier, G., Priestley, M. J. N., Kingsley, G., Igarashi, A., and Kurkchubasche, A. (1993). “Preliminary results from the TCCMAR 5-story full scale reinforced masonry research building test.” Masonry Soc. J., 12(1), 53–60.
Seible, F., Priestley, M. J. N., Kingsley, G., and Kurkchubasche, A. (1994). “Seismic response of full scale five story reinforced masonry building.” J. Struct. Eng., 925–946.
Shedid, M., Drysdale, R. G., and El-Dakhakhni, W. W. (2008). “Behavior of fully grouted reinforced concrete masonry shear walls failing in flexure: Experimental results.” J. Struct. Eng., 1754–1767.
Shedid, M., El-Dakhakhni, W. W., and Drysdale, R. G. (2010a). “Alternative strategies to enhance the seismic performance of reinforced concrete-block shear wall systems.” J. Struct. Eng., 676–689.
Shedid, M., El-Dakhakhni, W. W., and Drysdale, R. G. (2010b). “Characteristics of rectangular, flanged, and end-confined reinforced concrete masonry shear walls for seismic design.” J. Struct. Eng., 1471–1482.
Shedid, M. T., El-Dakhakhni, W. W., and Drysdale, R. G. (2009). “Behavior of fully grouted reinforced concrete masonry shear walls failing in flexure: Analysis.” Eng. Struct., 31(9), 2032–2044.
Siyam, M., El-Dakhakhni, W., and Drysdale, R. G. (2012). “Seismic behavior of reduced-scale two-storey reinforced concrete masonry shear walls.” 15th Int. Brick and Block Masonry Conf. (CD-ROM), Universidade Federal São Carlos, Brazil.
Siyam, M., El-Dakhakhni, W. W., and Drysdale, R. (2013). “Ductility of coupled reinforced masonry shear walls.” 12th Canadian Masonry Symp. (CD-ROM), Canada Masonry Design Centre, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
Smith, B., Kurama, Y., and McGinnis, M. (2013). “Behavior of precast concrete shear walls for seismic regions: Comparison of hybrid and emulative specimens.” J. Struct. Eng., 1917–1927.
Stavridis, A., et al. (2011). “Shake-table tests of a 3-story, full-scale masonry wall system.” Proc., ACI Masonry Seminar, American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI.
Tena-Colunga, A., and Abrams, D. P. (1996). “Seismic behavior of structures with flexible diaphragms.” J. Struct. Eng., 439–445.
Tomaževič, M. (1998). Earthquake-resistant design of masonry buildings, Imperial College Press, London.
Tomaževič, M., and Velechovsky, T. (1992). “Some aspects of testing small-scale masonry building models on simple earthquake simulators.” Earthquake Eng. Struct. Dyn., 21(11), 945–963.
Tomaževič, M., and Weiss, P. (1994). “Seismic behavior of plain- and reinforced-masonry buildings.” J. Struct. Eng., 323–338.
Yi, T., Moon, F., Leon, R., and Kahn, L. (2006). “Lateral load tests on a two-story unreinforced masonry building.” J. Struct. Eng., 643–652.
Zonta, D., Zanardo, G., and Modena, C. (2001). “Experimental evaluation of the ductility of a reduced-scale reinforced masonry building.” Mater. Struct., 34(10), 636–644.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 24, 2013
Accepted: Jan 30, 2015
Published online: Mar 13, 2015
Discussion open until: Aug 13, 2015
Published in print: Dec 1, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.