Date of Publication :7th June 2016

Abstract: Structural walls, mostly referred as shear walls, are efficient lateral load resisting system in a building structural configuration owing to their high strength and stiffness. But while considering ductility and energy dissipation capacity, which are the key elements in earthquake resistant design of structures, structural walls cannot be considered that efficient since the plastic hinge formation is concentrated at the base of the wall and the major portion of ductility of the wall remains unused. Structural walls with slits have an advantage over solid structural walls in this regard, because in structural wall with slits the plastic hinge formation (and hence the damage induced to the whole building) during an earthquake is distributed at the base of the wall as well as above the base, near the slits. Thus the capacity of the structure is enhanced. In this study, the seismic performance of the structural walls with slits is carried out analytically. A 10 storey slitted structural wall is analyzed using a commercial software package, the structure being subjected to four standard earthquake time histories namely: El Centro, Athens, Parkfield and Northridge earthquakes and compared with a solid structural wall. Non-linear time history analysis is carried out and seismic performance is studied by noting the natural period, top storey displacement, acceleration response of top storey, base shear force and base moment. The results reveal that structural walls with slits exhibit improved performance than solid structural walls.

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