Shear Failure Model for Flexure-Shear Critical Reinforced Concrete Columns

Abstract eng:
In areas of high seismicity around the world, the collapse vulnerability of older RC structures built prior to the advent of more effective seismic design codes is under careful investigation. The sheer number of these older structures, coupled with the overwhelming proportion of them that would require retrofit if assessed according to today’s conservative codes of practice, are hindering region-wide mitigation efforts to the point of rendering them ineffectual. Fortunately, in direct contradiction with the predictions of current codes of practice, post earthquake reconnaissance studies show that only a low portion of these buildings collapse. This observation highlights failings in our current codes in assessing structural collapse and suggests that more refined engineering tools might be useful to identify the small portion of buildings that are most collapse prone. In this way resources could be focused on seismic mitigation of those buildings and by consequence render region-wide mitigation efforts more tractable. Presented here is a newly developed shear failure initiation model for reinforced concrete columns with light transverse reinforcements. This model takes into account key variables that contribute to the loss of shear strength and is specifically aimed at columns with details and dimensions allowing them to yield in flexure prior to reaching their shear and axial capacities. This failure model breaks away from current global deformation or drift-based approaches to relate shear and failure to local deformations within the column critical sections.

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