Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Coupled Walls with Segmental Coupling Beams

Abstract

Anovelreinforcedconcrete(RC)segmentalcouplingbeam(SCB),whichmainlycomprisestheenergydissipating(ED)segment andloadbearing(LB)segment,isproposedinthispaper.Inordertoexamineitsapplicabilityinengineeringpractice,onescaled RC coupled wall specimen with the proposed SCBs was constructed and experimentally investigated under cyclic loading. The resultsshowthatbothcrackingandyieldingoccurredmuchearlierontheEDsegmentsoftheSCBscomparedtotheLBsegments. Inaddition,alotmorecracksdistributeddenselyontheEDsegmentswereobservedattheendofthetest.Itdemonstratesthatthe EDsegmentsplayamainroleintheenergydissipation,whiletheLBsegmentsarealwaysreliablycapableofcarryingthegravity loadtransferredfromthefloorbeams.Finally,thefiniteelementanalysismodeloftheRCcoupledwallisestablishedandvalidated by comparing the analysis results with the experimental ones. Utilizing the proposed analysis model, parametric analyses are conducted to investigate the influence of a variety of design parameters, including the axial compressive ratio of the wall pier, concrete strength, and especially sectional height of the SCB, on seismic performance of the coupled wall. It shows that as the sectionalheightoftheEDsegmentincreases,theenergydissipatingcapacityofthecoupledwallmayimprovewhiletheabilityof supporting the gravity load is lowered.