AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF AN INNOVATIVE COUPLING TECHNIQUE OF CONCRETE SHEAR WALLS

This research work experimentally investigates an innovative shear walls coupling for enhancement of seismic performance of reinforced concrete structures. The new proposed technique links plane, relatively distant, shear walls with a top roof beam constituting framed-shear walls. An experimental investigation is carried out for five 1/5 scale models. Each model consists of two 100 mm x 600 mm shear walls with 1800 mm height, connected by a 1200 mm long beam at their top with variable depth as a main examined parameter. The depth of top beam ranged from 200 mm to 600 mm. As a complementary to the scope of study, a numerical analysis of the test specimens was carried out using The Applied Element Method (AEM). Both the experimental and analytical results showed reasonable enhancement in strength of coupled shear walls using the proposed technique.