Testing and Modelling of a Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall Subjected to Combined Lateral and Axial Loading

Higher axial loading requires higher lateral loads to displace the shear walls, however, during seismic events higher axial loads reduce the shear walls’ abilities to dissipate energy. During these seismic events, the hysteretic response of shear walls with axial loading exhibits a pinching effect. Not only does this signify reduced energy dissipation, but this pinching effect is also representative of lower residual drifts and higher stored elastic potential energy. The experimental and numerical testing of a large-scale RC slender shear wall was conducted herein to investigate these behavioural characteristics. The results from testing using combined axial loading and reverse cyclic lateral displacements demonstrated that higher axial loads increased the lateral load required to displace the wall, reduced the residual displacements, increased the amount of stored elastic potential energy during the loading cycles, and confined most of the damage within the bottom half of the wall. The numerical analysis and assessment of the wall required multiple changes and an investigation of various constitutive models to achieve a satisfactory simulation.