Study on the Flexural Strength of Interior Thick Wall-Thick Slab Joints Subjected to Lateral Force Using Finite-Element Analysis

Abstract

A brand-new structural type, termed thick wall-thick slab structure, has been developed in recent years based on the reinforced concrete wall structure in Japan. This type of structural system can not only maintain high seismic performance, but also provide large interior space and improve the flexibility of the architectural design that is more favored by architects. In the present study, an equivalent cross-sectional area concept in which a coefficient termed the equivalent cross-sectional area ratio is proposed to estimate the flexural strength of the horizontal member of the interior wall-slab joints, which are critical assemblies in the thick wall-thick slab structures. To capture the stress condition of slab flexural reinforcement for calculating the equivalent cross-sectional area ratio, the method of finite-element analysis was employed in this work. The finite-element modeling was calibrated firstly using two isolated interior wall-slab joints from literature and consequently applied to a parametric numerical study. Finally, results from these finite-element analyses are adopted to propose the equivalent cross-sectional area ratio for modifying the current code formula to predict the flexural strength of interior wall-slab joints in TWTS structures subjected to lateral force.