Numerical study on seismic behavior of T-shaped steel fiber-reinforced composite shear walls

This paper presents the experimental results and develops detailed 3D Finite Element Models (FEM) of the Double-Plate Reinforced Concrete Composite Walls (DSRCWs) subjected to low cyclic repeated lateral loading. The FEM was developed using commercially available Finite Element (FE) software DIANA. The numerical models accurately captured the failure pattern, hysteretic behavior, and characteristic strength of all the DSRCWs. Parametric studies were conducted, focusing on the effects of steel plate thickness, shear span ratio, and flange width. Significant improvements in peak and ultimate load, up to 24 % and 12 %, respectively, were achieved when the steel plate thickness was increased from 3 to 5 mm. The flange width of the T-shaped shear wall within a range of 400 – 600 mm improved the bearing capacity and initial stiffness of the wall up to 17.2 % and 19.1 %, respectively. Reducing the shear span ratio from 2.0 to 1.6 improved the bearing capacity of the shear T-shaped wall model by 31 %, evincing that the shear span ratio is the primary factor affecting the bearing capacity of shear walls. The expression for determining the lateral bearing capacity of T-shaped DSRCWs was developed using the simplified stress model. The results of this study demonstrated that it was feasible to encourage the utilization of T-shaped DSRCWs in tall buildings.