Effect of Cut-Out Openings on the Axial Strength of Concrete Walls
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 11
Abstract
Old structures are frequently modified to comply with current living standards and/or legislation. Such modifications may include the addition of new windows or doors and paths for ventilation and heating systems, all of which require openings to be cut into structural walls. However, effects of the required openings are not sufficiently understood. Thus, the objective of the work reported here was to analyze openings’ effects on the axial strength of large concrete wall panels. Three half-scaled walls with two opening configurations, corresponding to small and large door openings, were subjected to a uniformly distributed axial load with a small eccentricity. The results indicate that the 25 and 50% reductions in cross-sectional area of the solid wall caused by introducing the small and large openings reduced the load-carrying capacity by nearly 36 and 50%, respectively. The failure progression was captured using digital image correlation technique and the results indicated involvement of a plate mechanism rather than uniaxial behavior as adopted in current design codes. Using a simplified procedure, the load-carrying capacity was predicted using existing design models found in the research literature and design codes.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge The Research Council of Norway (RFF), Development Fund of the Swedish Construction Industry (SBUF), and Skanska for financing the presented work and associated, ongoing project.
References
ACI (American Concrete Institute). (1993). “Guide for precast concrete wall panels.” ACI 533R-93, Farmington Hills, MI.
ACI (American Concrete Institute). (2001). “Control of cracking in concrete structures.” ACI 224R-01, Farmington Hills, MI.
ACI (American Concrete Institute). (2011). “Building code requirements for structural concrete and commentary.” ACI 318, Farmington Hills, MI.
ACI (American Concrete Institute). (2012). “Guide for precast concrete wall panels.” ACI 533R-11, Farmington Hills, MI.
Ali, A., and Wight, J. (1991). “RC structural walls with staggered door openings.” J. Struct. Eng., 1514–1531.
Ascent. (2012). “Envelope tolerances for architectural precast.” Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, Chicago.
Canadian Standards Association. (2004). “Design of concrete structures.” CAN/CSA-A23.3, Mississauga, ON, Canada.
CEN (European Committee for Standardization). (2004). “Design of concrete structures—Part 1-1: General rules and rules for buildings.” EN1992-1-1, Eurocode 2, Brussels, Belgium.
DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung). (1988). “Reinforced concrete structures: Design and construction.” DIN 1045, Berlin.
Doh, J., and Fragomeni, S. (2005). “Evaluation of experimental work on concrete walls in one-way and two-way action.” Aust. J. Struct. Eng., 6(1), 37–52.
Doh, J. H. (2002). “Experimental and theoretical studies of normal and high strength concrete wall panels.” Ph.D. thesis, Griffith Univ., Gold Coast, Australia.
Doh, J. H., and Fragomeni, S. (2006). “Ultimate load formula for reinforced concrete wall panels with openings.” Adv. Struct. Eng., 9(1), 103–115.
El-Metwally, S. E., Ashour, A. F., and Chen, W. F. (1990). “Instability analysis of eccentrically loaded concrete walls.” J. Struct. Eng., 2862–2880.
Floruţ, S.-C., Sas, G., Popescu, C., and Stoian, V. (2014). “Tests on reinforced concrete slabs with cut-out openings strengthened with fibre-reinforced polymers.” Compos. Part B: Eng., 66, 484–493.
Fragomeni, S., Doh, J. H., and Lee, D. J. (2012). “Behavior of axially loaded concrete wall panels with openings: An experimental study.” Adv. Struct. Eng., 15(8), 1345–1358.
Fragomeni, S., and Mendis, P. (1997). “Instability analysis of normal- and high-strength reinforced-concrete walls.” J. Struct. Eng., 680–684.
Fragomeni, S., Mendis, P. A., and Grayson, W. R. (1994). “Review of reinforced concrete wall design formulas.” ACI Mater. J., 91(5), 521–529.
Ganesan, N., Indira, P. V., and Santhakumar, A. (2013). “Prediction of ultimate strength of reinforced geopolymer concrete wall panels in one-way action.” Constr. Build. Mater., 48(16), 91–97.
Gere, J. M., and Timoshenko, S. P. (1990). Mechanics of materials, 3rd Ed., PWS-KENT, Boston.
GOM mbH. (2015). “ARAMIS—Optical 3D deformation analysis.” 〈http://www.gom.com/metrology-systems/system-overview/aramis.html〉 (May 20, 2015).
Guan, H. (2010). “Ultimate strength analysis of normal and high strength concrete wall panels with varying opening configurations.” Eng. Struct., 32(5), 1341–1355.
Huang, Y., Hamed, E., Chang, Z.-T., and Foster, S. J. (2015). “Theoretical and experimental investigation of failure behavior of one-way high-strength concrete wall panels.” J. Struct. Eng., 04014143.
Kennedy, G., and Goodchild, C. H. (2004). “Practical yield line design.” Concrete Centre, Camberley, Surrey, U.K.
Li, B., Kai, Q., and Tran, C. T. N. (2013). “Retrofitting earthquake-damaged RC structural walls with openings by externally bonded FRP strips and sheets.” J. Compos. Constr., 259–270.
Macgregor, J. G., Simmonds, S. H., and Warwaruk, J. (1971). “Seminar on building code requirements, ACI 318-71.”, Univ. of Alberta, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Mahal, M., Blanksvärd, T., Täljsten, B., and Sas, G. (2015). “Using digital image correlation to evaluate fatigue behavior of strengthened reinforced concrete beams.” Eng. Struct., 105(16), 277–288.
Mohammed, B., Ean, L. W., and Malek, M. A. (2013). “One way RC wall panels with openings strengthened with CFRP.” Constr. Build. Mater., 40(16), 575–583.
Mosoarca, M. (2014). “Failure analysis of RC shear walls with staggered openings under seismic loads.” Eng. Failure Anal., 41(0), 48–64.
Novak, A. S., and Collins, K. R. (2012). Reliability of structures, 2nd Ed., CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL.
Park, R. (1988). “State of the art report: Ductility evaluation from laboratory and analytical testing.” Proc., 9th World Conf. on Earthquake Engineering, Vol. VIII, International Association for Earthquake Engineering (IAEE), Tokyo, 605–616.
Pillai, S. U., and Parthasarathy, C. V. (1977). “Ultimate strength and design of concrete walls.” Build. Environ., 12(1), 25–29.
Popescu, C., Sas, G., Blanksvärd, T., and Täljsten, B. (2015). “Concrete walls weakened by openings as compression members: A review.” Eng. Struct., 89(16), 172–190.
Robinson, G. P., Palmeri, A., and Austin, S. A. (2011). “Implications of EC2 on the design of simply supported precast RC panels under eccentric axial load.” Proc., fib Symp. on Concrete Engineering for Excellence and Efficiency, Czech Concrete Society (CBS), Prague.
Saheb, M., and Desayi, P. (1990a). “Ultimate strength of R.C. wall panels in two-way in-plane action.” J. Struct. Eng., 1384–1402.
Saheb, M., and Desayi, P. (1990b). “Ultimate strength of RC wall panels with openings.” J. Struct. Eng., 1565–1577.
Sas, G., Blanksvärd, T., Enochsson, O., Täljsten, B., and Elfgren, L. (2012). “Photographic strain monitoring during full-scale failure testing of Örnsköldsvik bridge.” Struct. Health Monitor., 11(4), 489–498.
Seddon, A. E. (1956a). “Concrete walls in compression under short-term axial and eccentric loads.” IABSE (International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering), Zürich, Switzerland.
Seddon, A. E. (1956b). “The strength of concrete walls under axial and eccentric loads.” Symp. on the Strength of Concrete Structures, Cement and Concrete Association, London, 445–486.
Smith, B., Kurama, Y., and McGinnis, M. (2011). “Design and measured behavior of a hybrid precast concrete wall specimen for seismic regions.” J. Struct. Eng., 1052–1062.
Standards Australia. (2009). “Concrete structures.”, Sydney, Australia.
Swartz, S. E., Rosebraugh, V. H., and Rogacki, S. A. (1974). “A method for determining the buckling strength of concrete panels.” Exp. Mech., 14(4), 138–144.
Taylor, C. P., Cote, P. A., and John, W. W. (1998). “Design of slender reinforced concrete walls with openings.” ACI Struct. J., 95(4), 420–433.
Todut, C., Dan, D., and Stoian, V. (2014). “Theoretical and experimental study on precast reinforced concrete wall panels subjected to shear force.” Eng. Struct., 80(16), 323–338.
Todut, C., Dan, D., and Stoian, V. (2015). “Numerical and experimental investigation on seismically damaged reinforced concrete wall panels retrofitted with FRP composites.” Compos. Struct., 119(16), 648–665.
van Mier, J. M. (1986). “Multiaxial strain-softening of concrete.” Mater. Struct., 19(3), 179–190.
Wang, J., Sakashita, M., Kono, S., and Tanaka, H. (2012). “Shear behaviour of reinforced concrete structural walls with eccentric openings under cyclic loading: Experimental study.” Struct. Des. Tall Special Build., 21(9), 669–681.
Ziemian, R. D. (2010). Guide to stability design criteria for metal structures, 6th Ed., Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 11 • November 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 23, 2015
Accepted: Mar 1, 2016
Published online: Jun 6, 2016
Published in print: Nov 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Nov 6, 2016
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.