Idealized Bilinear Moment-Curvature Curves of Slender Rectangular RC Wall Sections

Methods are proposed to develop idealized moment-curvature response curves of slender rectangular RC wall sections with uniformly distributed longitudinal reinforcement, using limit states, namely, cracking of concrete in tension, tensile yielding of reinforcement layers, and compression failure of concrete. It is recommended that tensile yielding of an inner layer of reinforcement is considered to develop idealized moment-curvature response curve of RC wall sections in the absence of compressive axial load, as against tensile yielding of extreme layer of reinforcement in the presence of compressive axial loads. Distance of the critical inner layer of reinforcement from highly compressed edge depends on percentage of longitudinal reinforcement in the section; the distance varies from 0.5D to 0.98D with an increase in percentage of longitudinal reinforcement, where D is the length of the wall, but does not depend on plan aspect ratio. Furthermore, axial-flexure interaction envelope can also be developed from the idealized moment-curvature response curves.