Seismic behavior of reinforced concrete shear walls using a combined model of multi-layer shell and fiber beam elements

To simulate the realistic nonlinear behavior of reinforced concrete shear walls, which are an efficient structural system for resisting lateral forces, it is crucial to choose the appropriate numerical models and constitutive materials. Because of this, the current research, through two research portions, examines the seismic response of RC shear walls using a combined model of a multi-layer shell element and fiber beam element. This combined model of RC shear walls is guaranteed to be used in sequential and parallel analyses by comparing the results of using several model types of concrete’s nonlinear materials and shell elements. First, this combined model is used to calibrate the hysteretic curve resulting from the experiment of an RC shear wall subjected to a cyclic load. Second, the seismic response of RC shear walls in a building, with critical dimensions and numbers of shear walls, designed according to the Syrian Arab Code and subjected to a strong earthquake is assessed. The analysis’s findings demonstrate that the combined model of the RC shear wall and the experimental data from the hysteretic curve calibration agree well. It also notes that the performance level of the studied building, for all material types, reached collapse and collapse prevention levels according to damage and story drift ratio approaches, respectively, indicating that the shear walls’ design using the equivalent static method is unsafe for this studied building. This emphasizes the necessity of using sophisticated nonlinear models of materials and elements along with performance-based seismic design to develop the shear walls’ actual behavior.