Abstract

Establishing effective retrofit methods for upgrading the seismic performance of existing reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls requires reliable means for estimating the behaviour of RC shear walls with various geometry and reinforcement configurations. Generally, experimental testing of retrofitted RC shear walls is considered as the most reliable method of performance evaluation, yet this requires great efforts in terms of the testing equipment and time in addition to the high cost. On the other hand, a numerical model that would consider the main parameters that influence the complex performance of original and retrofitted RC shear walls is seen to be an effective tool for parametric studies and development of code provisions for the design or evaluation purposes. A number of experimental tests are available in the literature which could be used for the primary verification of possible numerical analyses. Similarly, a number of numerical and analytical approaches are available with a great potential for improvements in order to converge into a precise and usable analytical approach.
In this thesis, numerical modeling of RC shear walls using general purpose finite element analysis package ANSYS is explored. A total of seven wall specimens from four experimental programs were modeled and analysed under monotonic and reversed cyclic loading and the numerical predictions were in good correlation with the experimental data. One of the experimentally tested models was then selected for further detailed investigation on the influence of the concrete compressive strength and the addition of externally-bonded carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite sheet on the behaviour of the squat RC shear walls and their modes of failure.