| An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effect of confinement on the response of ductile shear walls subjected to reversed cyclic loading. Two shear walls, with identical dimensions, were designed in accordance with the Canadian Standard Association A23.3-04, except that a greater amount of confinement was provided in boundary elements. One specimen used normal-strength concrete, and the other used high-strength concrete. A number of confinement analytical models were selected to predict the behaviour of each specimen. The test data of two moderately confined shear walls (Liu 2004) was used to compare the responses of ductile shear walls at different levels of confinement. These predictions and comparisons with the test results are presented and discussed in terms of load-carrying capacities, ductility, moment-curvature responses and energy dissipation.; The test results indicate that the increased confinement of the boundary elements significantly enhanced the displacement ductility without appreciable change in load-carrying capacity. In addition, the beneficial effects of increased confinement were more pronounced in the normal-strength concrete shear walls than in the high-strength concrete shear walls. |
