Seismic Design of Slender Reinforced Concrete Structural Walls

Kaustubh Dasgupta Department of Civil Engineering

Introduction: Reinforced concrete (RC) structural walls are vertical plate-like elements starting
from the foundation level and going up through the entire height of a structure (Slide below).
During strong earthquake shaking of multistoreyed buildings, walls absorb the large horizontal
shear forces at different floor levels and help in transferring forces to the soil below (slide below).
They also reduce lateral deformation levels of the building, leading to less nonstructural damage.
Under lateral loading, stress distribution and flow of forces in the end-regions of wall get irregular
leading to formation of D-region or disturbed region (slide below). The other region is characterized
by uniform flow of forces, and is known as B-region or Bernoulli region.
Slender walls are those walls which have aspect ratio h / l more than about 2.0 [Penelis and Kappos,
1997], where h and l are the height and length of wall; these walls are characterized by flexure-
dominated behaviour. During earthquake shaking, design and detailing of slender walls ensure
energy dissipation at the base of wall through yielding of vertical reinforcement; this is also known
as formation of “plastic hinges”. The actual flexural strength M  , generated during formation of
plastic hinge, results in a horizontal shear force V (slide on next page).

Wall

F3 F3
Inertia forces
F2
F3
F1
D-Region
F2
FF33 B-Region
Wall
F2 F1 D-Region

F1 Earthquake
Ground Movement
F=F1+F2+F3

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 Structural Walls in Concrete Buildings

Modes of Failure Configuration Uplift

MΩ
V
h M* * *
D T l C l * 
V Min * ; ; ; ; Vs 
Current Practice  h 2 h h 
Concerns
Target
 No damage in foundation

Current design practice considers the critical section for hinge formation or possible shear failure to
be at the junction of wall and footing (the slide above). Observed failures of RC walls in past
earthquakes suggest that plastic hinge action takes place over a region (extensive cracking of
concrete and yielding of steel). Shear failure of RC walls can also occur in five different modes
namely, (a) shear failure from plastic hinge action, (b) crushing due to diagonal compression, (c)
tensile failure of vertical steel, (d) crushing of concrete due to vertical compression, and (e) sliding
shear failure along horizontal cracks [Paulay and Priestley, 1992]. Also, the re-entrant corner at wall-
footing junction initiates damages in the footing, leading to costly excavation and repair after every
earthquake.

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 Present Study
 Conceptual Design

Linear Taper Curvilinear Taper

Wall Ground
Level

Wall Wall
Soil Flexibility Soil Flexibility

Wall Finite Element Discretisation

In the present study, a structural wall from a five-storeyed building with symmetric plan
configuration (the slide above) is considered. Linear and curvilinear tapered (second degree curve)
configurations are considered for the same height of taper. Linear elastic finite element analysis is
carried out using SAP2000 program [CSI, 2006]. 8-noded solid elements are used for discretisation
of wall and footing. The grade of concrete is taken as M25. Two cases of soils contact are
investigated, namely (a) full contact, and (b) partial contact of footing. Soil stiffness is modeled using
equivalent vertical and horizontal springs. Three types of soil with different moduli of subgrade
reactions are considered, namely (a) loose sand( k  20,000 kN/m3), (b) dense sand( k  1,20,000 kN/m3),and (c)
rocks ( k  10,00,000 KN/m3) [Das, 2004]. For analysis cases with uplift of wall-footings, gap elements
with zero tension capacity characteristics, are used as soil springs.

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  Linear Analysis

Loose Dense Rock

Sand Sand

Deflection

Profile

Shear Stress (MPa)

Soil and Footing Flexibility

Reduction of Damage in Footing

Integrated Wall-Footing System

Influence of soil flexibility on column footing response is illustrated by vertical shear stress
contours (the slide above) in flexible soil, increased deformations cause severe stress concentrations
at the bottom of column, whereas rocks cause the column-footing to behave as a rigid body. Footing
flexibility depends on (a) footing thickness, (b) length of overhang, and (c) in-plane member
flexibility. Walls have higher in-plane stiffness than columns due to increased depth of members.
For the integrated wall-footing system, absence of flexible footing overhang changes the behaviour
similar to that of a rigid-block response. This results in reduced shear stress levels at the bottom of
footing, as evident for both linear and curvilinear tapers (the slide above).

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 16
D-Region

12
Height (m)

B-Region
8

D-Region
0
-0.10 0 0.05 0.15 -0.10 0 0.05 0.15 -0.10 0 0.05 0.15
Shear Stress (MPa)
Full Contact at Soil
Reduction of Damage in Wall and Footing

16

12
Height (m)

0
-0.06 0 0.06 0.12 -0.06 0 0.06 0.12 -0.06 0 0.06 0.12
Shear Stress (MPa)
Partial Contact

The stresses reduce with increasing height of taper also. For both full contact and partial contact
cases, curvilinear tapered wall gives the most favourable shear stress distribution (the slide above).
The intended region of damage in RC walls is the area of D-region above the starting section of
taper. Thus, the intended location of damage is controlled by changing the height of taper (the slide
above). Shifting of damage region in wall above ground level helps in elimination of footing
damage. Further parametric studies need to be carried out to obtain the desired behaviour of wall-
footing system.

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Conclusion:

 Damage moved to predetermined location above ground

- Footing saved from inelastic action
- No repair after an earthquake
 Revised design procedure for wall-footing system
 Critical in for rocky sites

Reference:
1. Penelis, G.,G., and Kappos,A.,J.. Earthquake Resistant Concrete Structures, EP & FN SPON,
London, 1997.
2. Paulay, T. and Priestley, M.J.N.. Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete and Masonry Buildings.
John Wiley and Sons Inc., New York, 1992.
3. CSI. SAP2000: Integrated Finite Element analysis and Design of Structures, Computers and
Structures Inc., California, USA, 2006.
4. Das, B.,M.. Prinicples of Foundation Engineering, Brooks/Cole, Fifth Edition, 2004.

Comments: a) REACH Symposium 2007 was very well organised with excellent facilities for technical and
nontechnical interactions. Selection of themes was very appropriate, and the diversity in research was aptly
highlighted.
(b) Some of the presentations were too specialised on the respective topics. All the topics should be presented
in such a way that people from other disciplines can also grasp the basics.
(c) Evening sessions should have more video presentations from industry or on collaborative research
work done elsewhere.

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