Preliminary study for reducing seismic damage in steel-concrete hybrid-coupled walls

An innovative single-pier hybrid coupled wall (SP-HCW), made of a single reinforced concrete wall coupled to two steel side columns by means of steel link, was recently proposed. The numerical analyses for this innovative solution showed the achievement of the designed seismic performances and the desired ductile global behaviour. However, the bottom zones of the concrete wall might experience undesired damages in case of strong seismic inputs. Hence, a new solution is presented and preliminary investigated, i.e., the wall is pinned at the base and equipped with additional vertical dissipative devices. This new configuration is expected to achieve no damage of the wall without reducing its dissipative capacity. In this article the results of preliminary pushover analyses are discussed to evaluate the expected performances of the proposed solution.