| The behavior of reinforced concrete shear walls is explored with nonlinear finite element software developed by Dr. K. J. Bathe of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Automatic Dynamic Incremental Nonlinear Analysis (ADINA). The purpose and scope of this thesis addresses practical considerations in the nonlinear analysis of reinforced concrete shear wall buildings.; Current design methodology relies on elastic finite element methods to design reinforced concrete structures. Elastic plate elements are used for shear walls, and beam-column elements are used for moment frame structures. The scope of this thesis addresses the shear wall buildings. Plate elements with a linear modules of elasticity accept tension and compression equally without distinguishing for cracked zones. Stress distributions in tension areas may be equal to those in compression zones. For reinforced concrete structures, this is clearly not the case. There are limited finite element software packages available for addressing the concrete cracking problem on a large multistory building.; The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce a useful practical methodology for addressing the nonlinear response of multistory reinforced concrete shear wall buildings. The prospect of applying these nonlinear analysis techniques on a broad scale to other reinforced concrete structures is possible, and encouraged. In light of this objective, the nonlinear finite element program is applied. The first portion of this thesis develops and examines a nonlinear methodology to predict behavior of individual shear wall specimens tested at the University of California, Berkeley. A reasonable correlation is observed for two test specimens. These tests consisted of increasing monotonic shear loads. Upon completing these verification tests, a fourteen story reinforced concrete building with seismic monitoring devices is analyzed for nonlinear capacity. The structure consists of six shear walls (four in the north-south direction, and two in the east-west direction). Each shear wall is modeled and analyzed for ultimate lateral capacity. Results are tabulated and compared with conventional design codes (i.e., Portland Cement Association, American Concrete Institute, and the Uniform Building Code).; A dynamic analysis is performed using time history input from the San Fernando (1971) and Northridge (1994) Earthquakes. Response Spectrum analyses are compared with recorded data with reasonable correlation. A second model using elastic finite elements is used to cross-check the results from nonlinear model. This program is the Extended Three Dimensional Building Analysis (ETABS) software, developed by University of California, Berkeley. Time history responses are compared between the elastic, inelastic, and recorded data. The inelastic model demonstrates itself a useful tool for practical nonlinear application on large building projects. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
