Nonlinear Seismic Analysis of Innovative Hybrid-Coupled Shear Walls

This study illustrates numerical analyses of a newly proposed hybrid coupled shear wall system made of a reinforced concrete wall coupled to two steel side columns by means of steel links. A pinned connection between steel links and the side steel columns ensures the transmission of shear forces only, thus, the side columns are subject to compression/traction with very small bending moments. The structure is conceived to concentrate the damage under earthquake excitation to the link elements so to obtain a seismic resistant system that is simple to repair. In order to assess the seismic structural behaviour of the proposed system, nonlinear analyses are used to investigate the performance of a case study consisting in a six-storey steel building where the proposed hybrid coupled shear walls are the only elements resisting horizontal forces. Details of the adopted material and geometric nonlinear finite model are illustrated. Afterwards the results of static pushover analysis as well as the results of multi-record dynamic pushover analysis are presented and discussed.