CVEN90017 Earthquake Resistant Design of Buildings

Assignment no.2
Seismic Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Walls
Year 2020
(Due on Friday 5th of June at 10am)
students may work individually or in pairs

Consider a multi-storey building of your choice of up to 30m tall (in order that effects of the
higher modes need not be considered). For simplicity sake symmetry may be assumed of the
structural configuration of the building on plan in the two orthogonal directions. In this
assignment the analysis for seismic actions only need be considered in the “weak” direction.
The focus is on the deformation behaviour of the RC structural walls which provide lateral
support to the building. The walls can be of the same design (meaning same geometry and
dimensions) to simplify the analyses. Walls may also be of uniform cross-section up its height.

Task no. 1
The class has been trained on the use of EXCEL spreadsheets for undertaking analysis of the
moment-curvature relationship of rectangular cross-sections. You are required to further
develop and make use of your own designed spreadsheets for developing the moment-curvature
relationships of the concrete cross-section at the base of the structural walls that you have
designed. Identify the secant flexural rigidity (EICR) and the curvature of the cross-section
at yield along with the maximum moment of resistance. For certain wall cross-sections its
deformation behaviour can be very different when deflected in opposite senses. In that case
analyses are required in both senses. Fully cracked conditions of the concrete may be assumed.
It is not expected of students to work on confined concrete in this assignment. It is important
that you undertake independent checks over the accuracies of the spreadsheet that you have
created. The checking may be accomplished by comparing results from software that can be
downloaded free from the internet. A well known example of such software is RESPONSE-
2000.

Note: Merits will be given to students who have demonstrated their ability to further develop
EXCEL spreadsheets for simulating moment-curvature relationships of non-rectangular cross-
sections. You must not present a concrete cross-section and reinforcement details which is
similar to what has been presented in class or by another member of the class.
Task no. 2
Make use of information obtained from Task no.1 and techniques learnt from the lectures in
this subject to estimate the stiffness of the structural wall, its effective displacement at
yield and at ultimate conditions (based on the low-cycle fatigue of the longitudinal
reinforcement), and hence the displacement ductility value. A linear curvature profile up the
height of the wall may be assumed at yield.
Assess the structural walls under design earthquake in accordance with AS1170.4 (2007) based
on a hazard factor (Z) of 0.08g and a return period of 2500 years on Class D site. You can use
either the capacity spectrum method or the deformation-based assessment approach. To
simplify the process, you may use the 5% damped design earthquake response spectrum as per
AS1170.4 (essentially, the response spectrum used in assignment 1 task 1). You do not need to
apply the modification factor to account for the increased damping due to the non-linear
behaviour of the structural walls