NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF SHEAR WALLS UNDER CYCLIC LOADING BASED ON OPENSEES

This paper presents the numerical analysis of shear walls under cyclic loading with the Shear Wall Nonlinear Analysis (SWNA) program, which is developed based on Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSEES) and Multiple Vertical Line Element Model (MVLEM). SWNA program uses macro-elements with multiple vertical springs to simulate shear walls, and it also provides a better description for the nonlinear behavior of the entire structure than those provided by micro-element based programs. In order to investigate the seismic performance of the original and altered shear wall structure of Guangzhou Garden Hotel, four shear walls with different reinforcement ratios and constructional details were tested under cyclic loading. Test results were compared to the analytical results using SWNA. The comparison substantiated the accuracy of the analysis procedure in simulating the nonlinear behavior of the shear wall, such as the shifting of natural axis, shear deformation, local buckling and collapse mechanism. As a result, the numerical analysis based on MVLEM, which reduces the calculating cost due to fewer Degrees of Freedom (DOFs) than microcosmic model, is verified to be applicable for simulating the shear wall in integral inelastic analysis and performance based design of tall building structures.