ASEISMIC CAPACITY OF REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURES : Medium or Low Rise Reinforced Concrete Rigid Frames with Shear Walls

The aseismic capacity of medium or low rise rectangular reinforced concrete rigid frames with shear walls is discussed here through the comprehensive treatment of such reinforced concrete structures which are assumed to be composed of three aseismic elements, i.e. long column units (LCu), short column units (SCu) and shear wall units (SWu) (cf. Fig.1). The total aseismic capacity is able to be estimated by the total deformation characteristics of such elements. The fracture modes, the natural periods and the critical numbers of stories of reinforced concrete structures are characterized by the combination of these three aseismic elements (cf. Figs.8 (a), (b)). These figures show that the shear walls have the largest influences upon the aseismic safety and the effects of sufficient web reinforcement (η1≧1%) of short columns are very large too (cf. Fig.15). A new comprehensive aseimic design method of medium or low rise reinforced concrete buildings with shear walls is presented here in this paper based upon the general deformation behaviours of such structures. and a checking and a stiffening method of already exixting reinforced concrete buildings is proposed here too.