Understanding the behavior of the Thin Lightly-Reinforced Concrete Wall (TLRCW) building system

ABSTRACT

Thin lightly reinforced concrete wall (TLRCW) buildings are commonly used to mitigate the housing deficit in developing countries. The TLRCW system comprises slender walls with a thickness lower than 150 mm, a high aspect ratio, limited or no confinement at the edges of the walls, and web reinforcement with limited ductility. This paper describes and discusses the main geometric and mechanical characteristics of 207 TLRCW buildings constructed in intermediate- and high-seismicity regions. Variables considered in the study are the number of stories, wall-area index, axial load ratio, slenderness, aspect ratio, and the type of reinforcement at wall edges. Statistical analyses of the database and global performance indices are correlated with the expected seismic performance of TLRCW buildings. The results of the analyses aided at developing a useful toolbox for rapid assessment of design and structural configuration to prioritize intervention strategies for existing TLRCW buildings.

KEYWORDS:

• Thin reinforced concrete wall
• lightly-reinforced
• global performance indices
• rapid building assessment
• database

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge to university members of the Colombian Earthquake Engineering Research Network – CEER (Universidad de Medellín, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Universidad EIA and Universidad del Norte Colombia). Authors also recognize Alejandro Cruz at the Universidad del Valle, Colombia, for providing relevant information of the building inventory in Cali, Colombia. The authors also would like to thank Frank Vidales, Camilo Casadiego at CC Corp, Jorge Salazar, Jose Lopez, Arabella Zapata and Julio Sánchez for their support in constructing the database. The authors also acknowledge to USI Library of Institute of Engineering at UNAM for providing some of the references. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflects the views of the sponsors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).