Cyclic Loading Experiment and Numerical Simulation of RC Walls

In civil engineering, the simulation of the reinforced concrete (RC) members exhibit great challenge to the researchers and designers especially considering the influence of some details. RC shear wall is one of the main lateral resistance members in tall buildings. A further understanding of shear walls is important to the seismic design. It is gradually recognized that boundary elements make contribution to the shear walls, but how to give a precise simulation result of the RC walls with different boundary element is still remain vague and seldom evidence is given by relative experiment either. This paper aims to extend the relevant existing studies with the following program: (1) the experimental study of shear walls with different longitudinal reinforcement and stirrup ratio in boundary area; (2) Numerical simulation study of the tested specimens. A finite element program (named as SAPCAD) is applied to gain a precise evaluation on the seismic behavior considering the boundary condition. The experimental study and the numerical simulation indicate that: (1) The simulation results which analyzed with SAPCAD on the bearing capacity agree to the test result well; (2) Both the influence of the longitudinal reinforcement bars and the stirrup could be considered in the program.