Seismic Design and Construction Practices for RC Structural Wall Buildings

Abstract

Reinforced concrete buildings utilizing structural walls for lateral load resistance are the predominant form of construction in Chile for buildings over four stories. Typical buildings include a large number of walls, with ratios of wall cross-sectional area to floor plan area of roughly 3% in each principal direction. Based on the good performance of RC buildings in the March 1985 earthquake, requirements for closely spaced transverse reinforcement at wall boundaries were excluded when Chile adopted a new concrete code in 1996 based on ACI 318-95. In recent years, use of three-dimensional linear models along with modal response spectrum analysis has become common. Since 1985, nearly 10,000 new buildings have been permitted. Although the newer buildings have similar wall area to floor plan areas as older buildings, newer walls are thinner and buildings are taller, leading to significantly higher wall axial load ratios.