Deformation analysis of concrete walls under shaking table excitations

Abstract

Deformation analysis of structural elements is a valuable tool to investigate the relationship of lateral force versus shear, sliding and flexural deformations, to assess the strength mechanism of failure mode, to assign suitable values of lateral stiffness, to estimate the contribution of steel reinforcement to strength and displacement capacities, to calibrate analytical models and, to propose appropriate parameters for performance-based seismic design. An experimental and analytical study was conducted to assess the components of deformation of low-rise reinforced concrete walls. The experimental program included shaking table tests of six low-rise concrete walls. The method and the instrumentation schemes to allow accurate assessment of the three components of deformations for squat walls and walls with openings are proposed. It was found that the proposed method produce consistent results for the tests evaluated