Performance evaluation of an innovative HCW system with Shear Dissipative Links

This paper presents an improved approach to a newly suggested design procedure of an innovative Hybrid Coupled Wall (HCW) system. This system consists of a reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall with dissipative steel links and steel side columns, where the RC wall carries almost all the horizontal shear force while the overturning moments are partially resisted by an axial compression-tension couple developed by the two side steel columns rather than by the individual flexural action of the wall alone. The design objective is to reduce or possibly avoid the damage in the RC wall while concentrating the seismic damage to the replaceable steel links which are shear critical, i.e. intended to fail in shear rather than flexure. This increases the energy dissipation ability of the whole system and thus improves its resistance towards seismic ground motion. This present piece of investigation also aims to bring clarity to some important points such as: definition of an efficient coupling ratio with or without uniform link distribution, lower and upper limits of the coupling ratio compatible with the assumed link distributions, relationship between the coupling ratio and the total building height. The proposed design procedure is applied to case studies considering various assumptions for the design parameters. The designed solutions are analysed through several nonlinear finite element models in order to evaluate the results of the design methodology and provide useful information on the ductility capacity of the proposed innovative HCW system for different coupling ratios and efficient energy dissipation characteristics of the shear links.