Performance of reinforced concrete shear walls with steel reinforced concrete boundary columns

This paper reports an investigation into the behaviour of reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls with steel reinforced concrete (SRC) boundary columns. A finite element (FE) model is developed and used to simulate the composite shear walls under constant axial load and lateral loading. A series of tests, including six shear wall specimens, were conducted to investigate the strength, ductility and energy dissipation of the tested models, as well as to verify the FE model. It is found that the FE model can predict the behaviour of the composite shear walls with reasonable precision. Stress and strain analysis is then conducted using this FE model to investigate the load transfer mechanism of the composite shear walls. Parametric studies are also carried out to study the influence of different parameters on the performance of the RC shear wall with SRC boundary columns. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.