08-10-2014, 04:39 PM
Shear wall systems have shown excellent performance in the past earthquakes. Lateral load response of reinforced concrete shear walls has been studied here. A computer program has been developed to obtain moment-curvature relationship for walls considering the boundary elements with confined concrete. This has been used to develop the lateral force-roof displacement relationship for building systems with shear walls. An example building system, with six- and nine-storeys, has been used to study the behaviour. It is assumed to be located in seismic zone IV or V of Indian seismic zone map. The walls are designed in two ways: with boundary elements having special confining reinforcement as per IS: 13920-1993 and with boundary elements having only nominal shear reinforcement as per IS: 456-1978. Response is studied in terms of ductility, drift capacity, over strength and response reduction factor. Initial stiffness, yield curvature, and over strength are found to be insensitive to the confinement in boundary elements. Due to confinement in boundary element, drift capacity