Simplified Nonlinear Analysis Of Reinforced Concrete Coupling Beams Subjected To Cyclic Loading

Reinforced concrete shear walls connected by coupling beams form an efficient structural system to resist earthquake and wind loads in tall buildings. However, the analysis of the effects caused by cyclic loading in this kind of system are not so straightforward. In the present paper, simplified nonlinear analysis using monotonic loading are used in order to obtain the behavior of tested coupling beams subjected to cyclic loading. Numerical results have shown that numerical monotonic loading is able to predict with good precision the yielding and the failure loads of the tested coupling beams subjected to cyclic loading. Both the cracking patterns and the predicted failure modes were captured reasonably well in comparison with the experimental behavior. Therefore, monotonic simulations may be applied to have a first estimate of the envelope curve for cyclic loading.