Vol.1 No.

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING VIBRATION

June 2002

Article ID: 1671-3664200201-0094-06

Static inelastic analysis of RC shear walls

Chen Qin () and Qian Jiaru ()

Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084,China

Abstract:A macro-model of a reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall is developed for static inelastic analysis. The model is
composed of RC column elements and RC membrane elements. The column elements are used to model the boundary zone and
the membrane elements are used to model the wall panel. Various types of constitutive relationships of concrete could be
adopted for the two kinds of elements. To perform analysis, the wall is divided into layers along its height. Two adjacent layers
are connected with a rigid beam. There are only three unknown displacement components for each layer. A method called single
degree of freedom compensation is adopted to solve the peak value of the capacity curve. The post-peak stage analysis is
performed using a forced iteration approach. The macro-model developed in the study and the complete process analysis
methodology are verified by the experimental and static inelastic analytical results of four RC shear wall specimens.

Keywords: RC shear wall; macro-model; static inelastic analysis; experiment

1

Introduction

Reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls are the main

vertical structural members in high-rise buildings to
resist lateral loads caused by wind and earthquake
effects. In order to perform static inelastic analysis of
building structures, a simple and rational analytical
model of a shear wall should be developed. At the
present time, various types of finite element models
(Lefas and Kotsovos, 1990; Kotsovos et al., 1992;
Vecchio, 1992) and macro-models (Park and
Reinhorm, 1987; Linde and Bachmann, 1994;
Koumousis and Peppas, 1992) have been proposed.
The finite element model has the advantage of
accuracy, but among the existing finite element models
of a shear wall, the effect of concrete confinement of
boundary zone on the wall deformation capacity is
seldom considered. On the other hand, since the
degrees of freedom of finite element models are large,
it is not practical to adopt finite element procedures for
analysis of building structures. Though the degrees of
freedom of a macro-model of a shear wall are smaller
and it can be applied to the analysis of building
structures, most existing macro-model analysis
procedures have not been extended to the post-peak
stage, so the true post-yield deformation capacity of
the wall cannot be predicted.
In this study, a new macro-model of a shear wall

for static inelastic analysis is developed. The proposed
Correspondence to: Chen Qin, Department of Civil
Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Tel. (010)62788620,
E-mail:chenqin99@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn

Ph D candidate Professor
Supported by: National Natural Science Foundation of China,
Grant number 59895410

model has the advantages of a finite element model

but with fewer degrees of freedom. The constitutive
models of cracked concrete and confined concrete are
adopted for the wall panel and the boundary zone,
respectively. A method named single degree of
freedom compensation is adopted to perform the
approaching-peak analysis and the post-peak analysis
is performed using the forced iteration approach. In
this way, the inelastic deformation capacity and the
ductility of shear walls can be studied.
The accuracy and applicability of the newly
developed macro-model are verified by the
experimental and analytical results of four RC shear
wall specimens

2
2.1

Analytical model
Basic elements of the model

An isolated RC shear wall is composed of two

parts: wall panel and a boundary zone. The wall panel
is reinforced with vertical and horizontal distributed
reinforcements and it is in plane stress state. The
boundary zone, which could be a rectangular section,
flanged section or barbell section, is mainly subjected
to tension or compression. It is concentrically
reinforced with deformed reinforcements and its
concrete could be confined with stirrups or unconfined.
Correspondingly, a static inelastic analysis model of
RC shear wall developed in this study is also
composed of two kinds of basic element: RC
membrane element and RC column element. The
former is used to model the wall panel and the later is
adopted to model the boundary zone.
2.2

Establishment of analytical model

Two basic assumptions are adopted for static

No.1

Chen Qin et al. : Static inelastic analysis of RC shear walls

inelastic analysis of shear walls with the proposed

model. First, the cross section remains plane after
deformation, and second, the stress in the horizontal
direction is equal to 0, i.e., V x 0 .
Fig.1 illustrates how to use two kinds of basic
element to model the shear wall. The wall is divided
into five layers along its height. For one layer, the
boundary zone at each end is modeled by two RC
column elements, and the wall panel is modeled with
four RC membrane elements. In total, the wall shown
in Fig.1 has 20 RC column elements and 20 RC
membrane elements.

Fig.2

95

Coordinate system of RC membrane element

a1 , a 2 , a3 , a 4 , b0 , b1 , b2 , b3 are the parameters to

be determined.
By taking the derivative of the displacement and
transformation of the coordinate, the following
relations are obtained:
BU

(3)
7

Fig. 1

Modeling of RC shear wall

By the plane section assumption, it is considered

that there is a rigid beam between two adjacent layers.
With each rigid beam, there are three degrees of
freedom at its center point: {ug g w g }, i.e.,
horizontal displacement, vertical displacement and
rotation, respectively.
According to the second assumption, the
horizontal strain at any point of a membrane element
is the same: H x D . If there are k membrane
elements in one layer, the number of unknown
horizontal strain for one layer is k . Then the total
degrees of freedom of one layer of the model are
3 k .

3
3.1

Stiffness matrix of layer

The stiffness matrix K e of the membrane element

can be derived from the virtual work theory:

B T DBt d x d y

(1)

in which, B is the shape function matrix, D is the

material stress-strain relation matrix and t is the
thickness of the wall panel.
Fig. 2 shows the local coordinate system of the RC
membrane element. The displacement patterns of any
point of the membrane element are as follows:
(2a)
u a 0  a1K  a 2K 2  a 3K 3  a 4[
(2b)
v b0  b1K  b2[  b3K[

u is horizontal displacement, v is
vertical displacement, [ and K are horizontal and
vertical local coordinate values, respectively, and a0 ,

in which,

D c  Ds

(4)

in which, Dc is the stress-strain relation matrix of

concrete, Ds is the stress-strain relation matrix of
reinforcement in one direction, and

is the sum

of the stress-strain relation matrices of reinforcements

embedded in concrete in

Stiffness matrix of membrane element

Ke

in which H is the strain vector, ^[\[\`

( H x , H y and J xy are normal strain in the x direction,
normal strain in y direction and shear strain in
xy plane, respectively), U is the displacement
T
vector, U {u v} ,and B is the shape function
matrix obtained from Eq.3.
For the membrane element, it is considered that the
vertical and horizontal distributed reinforcements are
smeared in concrete. The material stress-strain relation
matrix of the membrane element is

n directions. In this

study, n equals 2.
The displacement increment of the layer of the
membrane element can be transformed to that of the
membrane element in the same layer by their
geometrical relations (Fig.3)

du

B g d ug

(5)

in which, d u is the displacement increment at the

center point of the top and bottom edges of the
membrane element, d u = {d u 1 d u 2 d v1 d v 2
d w1 d w2 d D }T ; d u g is the displacement
g
increment at the center point of the layer, d u =
g
g
g
g
T
g
{d u1 d v1 d w1 d u 2 d w2 d D j ...} ; and
B g is the transfer matrix between the two
displacement increment vectors. The relationships
between the force increment and the displacement
increment of the layer of the membrane element in the
global coordinate system are

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING VIBRATION

96

dw 2g

du 2g

dv1g dwg
1

du1

du1g

d uc

B g K e B g d u g
k

(6)

Kc

{d X 1g d Y1g d M 1g d X 2g
g
g
d Y2 d M 2 d X 1 d X 2 d X k }T is the force
increment of the layer, d X j is the horizontal force of

in which, d X g =

gT

K eBg

s  s
BcT
Bc
 s s

3.3

The stiffness matrix of the layer of the model is the

sum of the stiffness matrices of membrane elements
and column elements:

(7)

K layer

Eq. (6) can be rewritten as the block matrix

K 11
K
21

K 12 d u

K 22 d E

1
 K 22
K 21 d u

3.4

(9)

From Eq. (8) and Eq. (9)

1
( K 11  K 12 K 22
K 21 ) d u

dX

(10)

Eq. (10) can be marked as

dX

Km d u

(11)

in which

dX

^d X

g
1

d Y1g

d M 1g

d X 2g

d Y2g

d M 2g
(12a)

du

^d u

g
1

d v1g

d w1g

d u 2g

d v 2g

d w2g

(12b)
Until now, the stiffness matrix of the layer of the

Km  Kc

(15)

i 1

in which, two means there are two column elements in

one layer.

(8)

Resolving the equations, the strain increment d E of

this layer can be obtained

(14)

Stiffness matrix of layer

dX

0

(13)

in which, s is the tensile or compressive stiffness

parameter that can be determined by the constitutive
relations of concrete and reinforcement.

the membrane element corresponding to H x . By the

second assumption, d X j =0.
The stiffness matrix of the layer of the membrane
element K l is the sum of the stiffness matrix of all
membrane elements in the layer:

Kl

Bc d u

in which, Bc is the shape function matrix of column

element, d uc is the vertical displacement increment
c
c T
vector of the column element, d uc {d v1 d v 2 } ,
and d u is the same as Eq. (12). The stiffness matrix
of the column element in a global coordinate system is

Displacement sketch of a layer

dXg

Stiffness matrix of column element

The RC column element of the model is a tensile

or a compressive bar. There is one unknown vertical
displacement at each end of the RC column element.
By the plane section assumption, it can be determined
with the displacements of rigid beams (Fig.3)

Q
QW
PH
XP
O
H
RO
FH

dv1 dw1

Fig.3

3.2

H
QW
DQ
UH
EP
P
H
HO
PH

dD

dv1c

membrane element K m has been developed. The

number of the degrees of freedom has been condensed
from 3  k to 3.

GP
L
JD
LH
UE

dv 2g

dv2 dw2 du
2

dv2c

Vol.1

Constitutive relations of materials in this

study

For the RC membrane element, the modified

compression field theory (MCFT) (Vecchio and
Collins, 1986; Vecchio, 1989; Vecchio and Collins,
1993) is adopted to determine the constitutive relation
of cracked concrete. The theory treated cracked
concrete in terms of average stress and average strain
with the directions of principal stress and principal
strain, and reflected the compression softening effect
and tension hardening effect. A perfect elasto-plastic
relationship is adopted for the reinforcement.
For the RC column element, the complete
stress-strain curve equations for confined concrete and
unconfined concrete suggested by Guo Zhenhai (1999)
are adopted for concrete, and the hardening
elasto-plastic relationship is adopted for reinforcement.

Static inelastic analysis process

The equilibrium equations of static inelastic

analysis of a structure are

Chen Qin et al. : Static inelastic analysis of RC shear walls

No.1

K g

97

(16)

Fig.5

The concrete cubic strength of specimens f cu was

25.2MPa, 22.9MPa, 34.1MPa and 34.4MPa,
respectively. The yield strength f y of reinforcement
with diameters of 4mm, 6mm and 10mm was
631.7MPa, 451.7MPa and 395MPa, respectively.
The boundary zone of the specimens was confined
with stirrups and the wall panel was reinforced with
distributed reinforcements. The stirrup characteristic

W
Q
L
R
S

N
D
H
S

in which, K g is the global stiffness matrix, P and

is the load and displacement vector, respectively. It is
well known that equilibrium equations are easy to
solve when the stiffness matrix is positive. When the
P  ' curve approaches its peak (Fig.4), the stiffness
matrix is ill-conditioned. To solve the ill-conditioned
linear equations, a method called single degree of
freedom compensation (SDFC) proposed by Zou
Jiling (2001) is used in this study. The global
T
stiffness matrix K g is decomposed into LDL style
before the equilibrium equations are resolved. To keep
stability of the resolution, a compensation value d 0 is
introduced, which makes every diagonal element of
matrix D is large enough. Then matrix K g is
modified to K g  C C is a diagonal matrix whose
elements are d 0 ,  d 0 or 0 , and the modified
equilibrium equations P ( K g  C ) can be
accurately solved. The true solution can be obtained
after iterative calculation of the modified equilibrium
equations. The forced iteration approach is adopted to
extend analysis to the post-peak stage. The complete
process of static inelastic analysis of the RC shear wall
is carried out in this manner.

'
Fig.4

Capacity curve

Experimental verification

5.1

Specimens

Four isolated RC shear wall specimens (SW-1

SW-4) were tested and analyzed to verify the shear
wall model newly developed in this study. SW-1 and
SW-2 were rectangular sections, SW-3 was an I
section and SW-4 was a T section. The details of the
specimens are shown in Fig.5.

RC shear wall speciments

value

Ov is used as a confinement parameter:

Ov

Uv f y fc

(17)

in which, U v is the volumetric ratio of stirrup, f c is

the concrete compressive strength, f c =0.67 f cu in this
study. For SW-1~SW-3, O v was 0.26, 0.28 and 0.25,
respectively. For SW-4, it was 0.19 and 0.25 for the

EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING VIBRATION

98

rectangular boundary zone and flanged boundary zone,

respectively.
Strains of vertical reinforcements in boundary
zones were measured with strain gauges. Lateral
displacement along the wall height was measured with
displacement transducers. Test data were recorded
with the computer-based data acquisition system.
The specimens were subjected to constant vertical
load and cyclic lateral load at the top. The axial force
ratio of specimens was 0.44, 0.21, 0.31 and 0.31,
respectively. All specimens were designed with strong
shear and weak bending and failed in flexure.
5.2

and one column element models the web of boundary

zone. The complete process static inelastic analysis
program of RC shear wall developed by this study was
used to perform the analysis.
5.3

Each specimen was divided into 11 layers along

the height. There are eight RC membrane elements
each layer. At the rectangular end, each column
element models half of the boundary zone. At the
flanged end, one column element models the flange









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Comparison of analytical and experimental

results

Lateral force-top displacement curves, i.e.,

capacity curves, of specimens obtained by experiment
and analysis are given in Fig.6. The experimental
results are skeleton curves of hysteresis loops of
specimens.
Table 1 lists the analytical and experimental
maximum horizontal loads, i.e., the ultimate strength
of the specimens. The difference between the two
results is less then 10%. Table 1 also shows the
displacement ductility ratios and the ultimate rotations
of specimens. The displacement ductility ratio, P ,
and the ultimate rotation, T , are defined as

Static inelastic analysis of specimens



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Analytical and experimental lateral force-top displacement curves of specimens





Chen Qin et al. : Static inelastic analysis of RC shear walls

No.1

'u 'y

(18a)

'u H

(18b)

lateral displacement at the top of specimen,

respectively, and H is the displacement measure
height.
From the comparison, it is found that the static
inelastic analysis provides a good estimate of the
capacity curves of the specimens.

in which, 'y and 'u are the yield and the ultimate

Table 1
Specimens
SW-1
SW-2
SW-3
SW-4

Comparison of experimental and analytical results

Ultimate lateral force /kN

Experimental

99

Analytical

Experimental

T
Analytical

Experimental

Analytical

215.8

232.1

185.6

192.9

328.2

326.1

282.0

293.2

3.48

3.96

1/120

1/94

286.4

297.9

2.92

3.43

1/166

1/110

237.2
201.8
321.4

3.21

4.13

3.68
8.6

6.45

5.58
4.23

4.48

4.35

1/118
1/119
1/49
1/72
1/101
1/99

1/95
1/56
1/87

Note: S means loading from south and N means loading from north.

Conclusions

The macro-model of the RC shear wall proposed

in this study simulates the wall panel and the boundary
zone with the RC membrane element and RC column
element, respectively. It has the advantages of a finite
element model but with fewer unknown numbers of
displacement. The approaching-peak analysis and the
post-peak analysis is carried out by using the single
degree of freedom compensation method and the
forced iteration method, respectively. The accuracy
and applicability of the proposed macro-model and the
complete process static inelastic analysis of RC shear
walls are verified by comparing experimental and
analytical results.

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