Rehabilitation of Infilled Reinforced Concrete Frames with Thin Steel Plate Shear Walls

Different rehabilitation methods have been suggested for system improvement of existing deficient reinforced concrete building stock in seismic hazard areas. Although the use of steel plate shear walls for the rehabilitation of steel frames is common, their application to deficient reinforced concrete frames is not as common. In this study, the efficiency of steel plate shear walls on deficient reinforced concrete frames having hollow clay tile infill walls is investigated. Five one-bay, two-story 1/3 scaled RC frames were subjected to quasistatic lateral loading. The results indicated that significant improvement may be achieved in the lateral frame response. Lateral load-carrying capacities and energy dissipation capacities were considerably increased. However, a local shear strengthening of deficient columns may be required since shear demand on the columns increases considerably owing to tension field forces of the steel plate shear walls. (C) 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.