Earthquake Response Analysis and Resistant Design of Moderately Ductile Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls Considering Higher Mode Effects

Recent numerical studies have demonstrated that current code requirements may underestimate the seismic shear at the base and the flexural strength demands along the height of reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls. These may lead to shear failure at base and unintended plastic hinge formation in the upper part of walls. The underestimations of the demands in codes are attributed to inaccuracies in considering higher mode effects (HMEs) when structural walls behave in the nonlinear range. Researchers have proposed methods to consider HMEs. However, most of the proposed methods were based on numerical studies using simple finite element structural analysis program with lumped plasticity beam elements or finite element models with assumptions that have not been validated by using experimental dynamic tests. In addition, most of these proposals were restricted to shear walls located in western North America (WNA) with low dominant frequency around 2 Hz as opposed to 10 Hz for eastern North America (ENA) earthquakes. Therefore, an investigation of HMEs using experimentally verified constitutive shear wall models considering high frequency ENA ground motions is necessary.