EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE BOUNDARY ELEMENT ON THE SEISMIC BEHAVIOR OF THE RC WALLS

Reinforced concrete shear wall is the main lateral resistance member in tall buildings. As a common believe, boundary element will affect the seismic behavior of the shear wall. As to the detail, theories still remain vague, and seldom evidence is given out by relative experiment. Regularity on how the boundary element affect the seismic behavior of the RC walls is investigated on 3 pieces of RC walls with different boundary elements which are tested under reversed cyclic loading in this article. The investigation includes the damage mode, the horizontal bearing capacity, the displacement ductility radio, the rigidity degradation, and the seismic energy dissipation capacity. Result indicates that reasonable setting boundary element can discrete the plastic damage area, enhance the horizontal bearing capacity, and improve the seismic energy dissipation capacity. Deduction also represents that the boundary ratio of longitudinal reinforcement has significant influence on enhancing the horizontal bearing capacity, the seismic energy dissipation capacity and the rigidity degradation. However, the boundary character value of stirrup does not have much contribution to the seismic energy dissipation capacity in the test.