Long-term behaviour of a reinforced concrete wall under compressive stress applied to part of the wall's entire width

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to suggest a method of quantitatively predicting long-term deformation of walls under an axial load concentrated on a part of the entire width of the walls. Four wall specimens were tested and three-dimensional finite element analyses were performed for these specimens. The test results verified the finite element models. On the basis of this verification, analysis parameters were selected with respect to various dimensions of the walls and the sectional area of the concentrated load, and finite element analyses for these parameters were carried out. The novel concept of the effective width coefficient was introduced as a method of predicting the longterm behaviour of walls. Furthermore, from the regression analysis, a function is suggested that can optimally fit the effective width coefficients that were calculated from the analysis results for the selected parameters. The suggested function can be conveniently used to predict the long-term behaviour under loads concentrated on a local area for the entire width of walls. © 2008 Thomas Telford Ltd.