Study on the Fire Behavior of Sandwich Wall Panels with GFRP Skins and a Wood-Web Core

To investigate the temperature field and residual bearing capacity of the sandwich wall panels with GFRP skins and a wood-web core under a fire,three sandwich walls were tested.One of them was used for static load test and the other two for the one-side fire tests.Besides,temperature probe points were set on the sandwich walls to obtain the temperature distribution.Meanwhile,the model of the sandwich wall was established in the finite element software by the method of core material stiffness equivalent.The temperature distribution and performance reduction of materials were also considered.The residual bearing capacity of specimens after fire exposure were simulated considering the effects of web spacing,wall panel thickness and fire exposure time.Because the sandwich wall panels were stressed by eccentric compression after a fire,the residual compressive strength of the wall panel after the fire can be calculated through the eccentric loading analysis.Compared with the numerical results,it can be concluded that the effectiveness of calculation method of residual bearing capacity after fire exposure was proved.

A Theoretical Study the Effect of Openings in Infill Wall Panels on the Behavior of Structures

Two dimensional,reinforced concrete building frames built on raft foundation and having infill wall panels with openings in them are analysed using the direct stiffness method.Beams and columns are modelled by beam column elements.Wall panels are modelled by plane stress finite elements.The raft foundation is modelled by uniaxial finite elements.The soil is modelled as half space model.Openings in wall panels are introduced by using fictitious beams between real floor beams. A computer program is written to carry out the static analysis and do the necessary comparison to show the effect of openings on the structural behavior.

Seismic earth pressures on flexible cantilever retaining walls with deformable inclusions

In this study, the results of 1-g shaking table tests performed on small-scale flexible cantilever wallmodels retaining composite backfill made of a deformable geofoam inclusion and granular cohesionlessmaterial were presented. Two different polystyrene materials were utilized as deformable inclusions.Lateral dynamic earth pressures and wall displacements at different elevations of the retaining wallmodel were monitored during the tests. The earth pressures and displacements of the retaining wallswith deformable inclusions were compared with those of the models without geofoam inclusions.Comparisons indicated that geofoam panels of low stiffness installed against the retaining wall modelaffect displacement and dynamic lateral pressure profile along the wall height. Depending on the inclusioncharacteristics and the wall flexibility, up to 50% reduction in dynamic earth pressures wasobserved. The efficiency of load and displacement reduction decreased as the flexibility ratio of the wallmodel increased. On the other hand, dynamic load reduction efficiency of the deformable inclusionincreased as the amplitude and frequency ratio of the seismic excitation increased. Relative flexibility ofthe deformable layer （the thickness and the elastic stiffness of the polystyrene material） played animportant role in the amount of load reduction. Dynamic earth pressure coefficients were compared withthose calculated with an analytical approach. Pressure coefficients calculated with this method werefound to be in good agreement with the results of the tests performed on the wall model having lowflexibility ratio. It was observed that deformable inclusions reduce residual wall stresses observed at theend of seismic excitation thus contributing to the post-earthquake stability of the retaining wall. Thegraphs presented within this paper regarding the dynamic earth pressure coefficients versus the wallflexibility and inclusion characteristics may serve for the seismic design of full-scale retaining walls withdeformable polystyrene inclusions. 2014 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting byElsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Shear reinforcement effect of reinforced concrete tie-columns on the lateral resistance of confined masonry walls

Tie-columns improve significantly the lateral resistance of masonry bearing walls against persistent, transient and accidental loads. The research work described herein has been carried out to assess the lateral resistance of confined masonry walls, where contribution of the masonry panel is evaluated according to material mechanics and tie-columns effect is estimated by a proposed analytical formulation based on a model reported on previously. This approach takes into account the effect of dowel support on the reaction of its adjacent shear reinforcement： the conditions for the various contributions of transverse reinforcements are better defined following a clear evaluation of the participation ratio of these reinforcements. Lateral resistances of confined masonry walls measured in full-scale tests and gleaned from the literature are compared and checked with resistances calculated using the present approach.

Lateral stiffness of steel plate shear walls

The steel plate shear wall system has been used in a number of buildings as an innovative lateral force resistant system.Openings often exist in the steel plate shear walls due to the various functional requirements of structures.These openings may negatively impact the lateral stiffness of steel plate shear walls.Therefore,an experimental research was instituted to investigate the seismic behavior of steel plate shear walls,with and without openings.The experimental results showed that steel plate shear walls have the satisfying seismic behavior,and,as expected,the strength and stiffness characteristics of the walls were reduced due to openings.Then a single-story wall panel FE model and an analytical deep beam model are developed in order to find the critical factors dominating the thickness reduction coefficient of wall panels with the opening.Furthermore,extensive parametric analysis is conducted to derive a simplified formula for the determination of the thickness reduction coefficient of wall panels with the opening for substituting solid wall panels with reduced thickness for actual wall panels with the opening.Finally,the design method for calculating the lateral stiffness is verified by some experimental programs and recommended for the routine practice of steel plate shear walls.