Modeling of RC shear walls using shear spring and fiber elements for seismic performance assessment

Reinforced concrete shear wall is one of the most effective members during severe lateral loads especially in earthquakes and winds. Extensive researches, both analytical and experimental, have been carried out to study the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls. Predicting inelastic response of RC walls and wall systems requires accurate, effective, and robust analytical model that incorporate important material characteristics and behavioral response features. In this study, a modeling method using fiber and spring elements is developed to capture inelastic responses of an RC shear wall. The fiber elements and the spring reflect flexural and shear behaviors of the shear wall, respectively. The fiber elements are built by inputting section data and material properties. The parameters of the shear spring that represent strength and stiffness degradation, pinching, and slip are determined based on analysis results from a detailed finite element method (FEM) model. The reliability of the FEM analysis program is verified. The applicability of the proposed modeling method is investigated by performing inelastic dynamic analyses for reference buildings with various aspect ratios of shear walls.