The influence of the degree of elongation to the displacements of structural walls with low-reinforced end-sections

Abstract

The past few years, it has become explicit that failure due to transverse instability is difficult to be observed in actual structures after the event of seismic excitation, even if it is certain that it exists as phenomenon and can even lead to general collapse of structures. Consequently, because of the big importance of transverse instability and the role that plays in the seismic behavior and safety of constructions, a sedulous study is required about the mechanism of occurrence of this phenomenon and the factors that lead to its growth. The present work is experimental and consists of 5 test specimens of scale 1:3 simulating the boundary edges of structural walls. These specimens were reinforced with the same low longitudinal reinforcement ratio (1.79%). The degree of elongation applied was different for each specimen. The present paper tries to investigate the influence of the degree of elongation to the displacements and the modes of failure of test specimens.