Numerical tools for modeling of RC shear walls

Reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls are commonly used as the lateral load-resisting system of structures especially in high seismic zones. RC shear walls are progressively used in new structures as well as the rehabilitation of existing structures. Predicting the behavior of RC shear walls under lateral loads requires accurate numerical tools that enable the designers to simulate important aspects of nonlinear behavior of RC shear walls, including shifting of the neutral axis along the cross section, local collapse, shear deformation, as well as combined effects of moment, shear and axial forces and characteristics of the cyclic wall response, including backbone curves, initial stiffness, yield point, stiffness degradation, strength deterioration, hysteretic shape, residual displacement, energy dissipation and pinching behavior. The goal of this paper is to describe the numerical implementation of three different modeling techniques of RC shear walls into the OpenSEES software. These models contain fiber section model, flexure-shear interaction model and cyclic softened membrane model (CSMM). The models are evaluated by the numerical simulation of a test case study reported in the literature.