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.
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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.
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Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 12 • December 2015
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
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