Seismic behavior comparison of RC shear walls strengthened using FRP composites and steel elements

This paper aims at investigating the seismic behavior of strengthened reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls using a 3D finite element analysis. A series of four different configurations of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites and four different schemes of steel elements are utilized to compare the two methods of retrofitting RC shear walls with similar dimensions and reinforcement ratios. Nonlinear simulations of the RC shear walls are conducted under the action of lateral cyclic loading in ABAQUS Explicit software. In addition, the numerical modeling for RC walls strengthened by CFRP composites as well as steel elements are validated according to the previous experimental studies. The numerical results reveal that both types of strengthening methods have desirable performance in terms of the ultimate load capacity, failure displacement, energy absorption, and ductility in comparison with the control shear wall (CSW). Furthermore, evaluation of the response parameters including secant stiffness and dissipated energy demonstrate that utilizing steel elements is more advantageous compared to CFRP composites.