Nonlinear FEM Numeral Simulation of RC Shear Walls with Staggered Holes

Abstract

Shear walls with staggered holes (SWSH) are bad for structures, if they are applied in buildings, we should modify them. This paper mainly discusses their seismic performance and influence of different strengthened methods on them. Based on existed experiment results, Models of shear walls with staggered holes and 3 kinds of strengthened models are established with finite element software OpenSEES. The strengthened methods are (a) hidden beams be added between two adjacent floors; (b) Based on Method (a) the hole edges are strengthened with constructional columns; (c) Based on Method (a) ， the diagonal reinforcement is added in the wall limbs between holes and edge columns. The calculation results show that the ductility and load capacity of SWSH is much lower than regular shear walls, and all the 3 kinds of strengthened methods can improve it, especially (b) and (c) can improve seismic performance efficiently, and (c) shows better performance in later stage. Thus it is suggested that shear walls be strengthened with Method (b) or (c), if shear walls with staggered holes are applied in actual engineering.