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Out-of-plane stability of reinforced masonry shear walls under seismic loading : cyclic uniaxial tests

University of British Columbia

In recent years, widespread application of low-rise masonry construction, including post-disaster buildings like fire halls, has become limited in seismic regions of Canada. This is because the Canadian Masonry Design Standard (CSA S304.1-04) [Canadian Standard Association 2004] mandates stringent requirements on the design of ductile reinforced masonry (RM) shear walls, especially with regard to their height-to-thickness (h/t) ratios, which were restricted to ensure against out-of-plane instability. This failure mechanism has been observed in the end zones of reinforced concrete shear walls loaded in-plane in experimental research and in past earthquakes. However, there is a lack of similar evidence for RM shear walls; this is a motivation for the research program described in this thesis. The research consists of several major tasks. First, a review of the literature on previous experimental research studies on RM shear walls was conducted, followed by comprehensive investigation into the parameters affecting out-of-plane instability of RM shear walls,. Based on the results of this literature review, the first phase of the experimental program was designed with a focus on modeling the RM wall end zone and understanding the mechanism of lateral instability. Five full-scale specimens representing the wall end zones were constructed and subjected to reversed cyclic axial tension and compression until failure. The effect of varying h/t ratios of the plastic hinge zone, as well as level of axial tensile strain on the out-of-plane instability was examined. Based on the results of the experimental study, it was concluded that the level of applied tensile strain in the wall end zone is one of the critical factors governing its lateral instability. Therefore, the maximum tensile strain that may be imposed on a moderately ductile RM wall end-zone is determined based on a kinematic relationship between the axial strain and the out-of-plane displacement. A preliminary mechanic model has been proposed to predict the maximum tensile strain before instability takes place. The model can be incorporated into design provisions related to the thickness of shear walls of a given height. A comparison with the experimental results showed that the model offers conservative prediction of the maximum tensile strain.

Text

2012-04-19

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/42113

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/