Analysis of Shear Wall with Openings Using Solid65 Element

The use of shear wall-buildings is quite common in some earthquake prone regions. During seismic excitation, they contribute in absorbing moments and shear forces and reduce torsional response. Usually, architectural design leads to the existence of doors and windows within shear walls. Previous researches on the behavior of shear walls with openings assumed elastic analysis utilizing shell and brick elements. The present work adopts nonlinear finite element analysis using solid65 element. The analysis comprises both material and geometric nonlinearities. Solid65 element models the nonlinear response of concrete material based on a constitutive model for the triaxial behavior of concrete after Williams and Warnke. Five shear wall models with different opening sizes are analyzed. A sixth model of a solid shear wall is also presented to compare the analysis results. The paper studies the effect of the size of the openings on the behavior of the reinforced concrete shear walls. The study indicates that openings of small dimensions yield minor effects on the response of shear walls with respect to both normal stresses along the base level of shear walls and maximum drift. Cantilever behavior similar to that of a solid shear wall takes place and analogous to that of coupled shear walls. On the other hand, when openings are large enough, shear walls behave as connected shear walls, exhibiting frame action behavior.