Numerical study of a full-scale six-story reinforced concrete wall-frame structure tested at E-Defense

SUMMARY A full-scale shake table test on a six-story reinforced concrete wall frame structure was carried out at E-Defense, the world's largest three-dimensional earthquake simulation facility, in January 2006. Story collapse induced from shear failure of shear critical members (e.g., short columns and shear walls) was successfully produced in the test. Insights gained into the seismic behavior of a full-scale specimen subjected to severe earthquake loads are presented in this paper. To reproduce the collapse process of the specimen and evaluate the ability of analytical tools to predict post-peak behavior, numerical simulation was also conducted, modeling the seismic behavior of each member with different kinds of models, which differ primarily in their ability to simulate strength decay. Simulated results showed good agreement with the strength-degrading features observed in post-peak regions where shear failure of members and concentrated deformation occurred in the first story. The simulated results tended to underestimate observed values such as maximum base shear and maximum displacement. The effects of member model characteristics, torsional response, and earthquake load dimensions (i.e., three-dimensional effects) on the collapse process of the specimen were also investigated through comprehensive dynamic analyses, which highlighted the following seismic characteristics of the full-scale specimen: (i) a model that is incapable of simulating a specimen's strength deterioration is inadequate to simulate the post-peak behavior of the specimen; (ii) the torsional response generated from uniaxial eccentricity in the longitudinal direction was more significant in the elastic range than in the inelastic range; and (iii) three-dimensional earthquake loads (X–Y–Z axes) generated larger maximum displacement than any other loading cases such as two-dimensional (X–Y or Y–Z axes) or one-dimensional (Y axis only) excitation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.