Seismic Response of Linear, Flanged, and Confined Masonry Shear Walls

Abstract eng:
A potentially limiting feature of reinforced masonry shear walls is the presence of a single line of vertical reinforcement along the wall length that cannot be effectively tied to delay buckling. Especially under cyclic loading, when opening and closure of wide cracks occurs, compression closure of the previous tension cracks causes all of the compressive stresses to be carried by isolated bars at the crack location. This situation affects the stability of the compression zone and may lead to out-of-plane buckling of the wall or local buckling of the reinforcement, which can lead to an accelerated degradation in strength due to increased damage. This limitation may be avoided by using boundary elements at the end zones of the walls or by structurally connecting a linear wall to an intersecting wall which would limit the damage at the end zone of the wall, provide out-of-plane stability for the end of the wall, and delay buckling of the vertical bars. The experimental data presented is the first phase of an investigation of the response of flexural concrete masonry shear walls with various geometries at the ends of the walls. The conditions studied are the effects of structurally connecting a flange to a linear reinforced masonry shear wall and of creating a boundary element at each end of the wall. The walls were tested under reversed lateral cyclic displacement simulating earthquake excitation. Details of the linear, flanged, and confined wall tests are presented in this paper. In general, high levels of ductility accompanied by relatively small strength degradation were observed for the test specimens with significant increase in ductility for the flanged and confined walls.

• Export as: BibTeX | MARC | MARCXML | DC | EndNote | NLM | RefWorks
• Add to your basket