Theoretical Model For Predicting Shear Strength Of Low Rise Reinforced Concrete Structural (Squat) Walls

Abstract

Shear strength of reinforced concrete walls is an important in design of low rise building subjected to lateral loads. In this paper, a simplified approach, using a softened strut and tie model for determining the shear strength of reinforced concrete structural (squat) walls with a height to width ratio less than or equal to 2 has been considered The proposed simplified strut and tie model satisfies equilibrium, compatibility and constitutive laws of cracked reinforced concrete elements. The shear capacities of 62 structural walls were calculated and compared with the available experimental results and ACI Code (ACI 318-08) and Hwang et al (2001)General and Simplified models and a good reasonable agreements was found. Based on the available experimental data in this paper, the proposed model was applied to study the effect of boundary elements, cyclic loading and vertical loading conditions on the wall shear strength.