Decay of Torsional Stiffness in RC U-Shaped Walls

Abstract

Reinforced concrete (RC) U-shaped walls are a popular construction choice, commonly used to resist the lateral loads from wind and earthquakes. In many buildings, the center of stiffness of a floor is eccentric from the center of mass and the building will therefore undergo some twist. Often, U-shaped walls contribute significantly to the torsional stiffness of the building and the analysis of the structure therefore requires an estimate of the torsional stiffness. This research investigates the dependency of the torsional stiffness of U-shaped walls on the translational displacement demands using experimental evidence and advanced numerical models. The experimental results show that the tor..