This paper presents a method to evaluate the seismic performance of RC walls, based on the local (material) response obtained from computational simulation. The latter relies on a recent implementation of the nonlinear truss model, which has been shown capable of capturing all important RC wall failure modes. An enhancement to the method is presented herein, enabling the accurate reproduction of lap-splice failures. The seismic evaluation procedure relies on establishing strain-like acceptance criteria for all significant material damage modes related to Immediate Occupancy, Life Safety and Collapse Prevention performance levels. Truss models are shown to accurately capture the force-displacement response and failure patterns observed in these tests. The threshold limit values for each performance level obtained with the proposed strain-based criteria are consistent with the physical damage and deterioration of the load-carrying capacity of the walls.The study presented in this paper was supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under award No. 70NANB19H060. Any opinions and findings presented in this paper are those of the authors alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the sponsor.Postprint (published version
