Reinforced concrete (RC) squat walls are often encountered for various inevitable purposes in many civil engineering structures, which play role on failure due to lateral forces produced by seismic, wind and explosive loads. This paper discusses on some investigations on…
Reinforced concrete (RC) squat walls are often encountered for various inevitable purposes in many civil engineering structures, which play role on failure due to lateral forces produced by seismic, wind and explosive loads. This paper discusses on some investigations on RC squat walls with openings in comparison with controlled walls without openings. Experimental studies have been carried out on RC shear walls with and without openings. The walls under gravity loads were tested under lateral loads due to the effect of earthquake motions on buildings. The lateral strength and load transfer mechanism have been significantly altered with the provision of utility openings in RC walls. The shear strength and load transfer paths have been evaluated through nonlinear finite element analysis of RC walls with and without openings for validating the experimental results. Plain concrete is modelled as multi linear isotropic material using SOLID65 element, which captures plastic deformation, cracking in three orthogonal directions, and crushing. The reinforcement bars are modelled as discrete bilinear elements using LINK8 element. In order to control the cracking of concrete in corner regions of openings, fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) was adopted, in which the steel fibres were smeared. The addition of steel fibres improves the shear strength by 60%. The confinement and cracking resistance of concrete have been significantly improved by FRC, exhibiting that is an efficient solution for mitigating the stress concentration induced cracking in RC walls with openings.