Development and implementation of shear wall finite element in OpenSees: Fid-Bau Portal

Development and implementation of shear wall finite element in OpenSees

Guan, Minsheng / Hang, Xiru / Wang, Mengsen / Zhao, Hanyuan / Liang, Qing Quan / Wang, Ying

Abstract Shear walls are widely used as lateral load-resisting systems in high-rise building structures. The design and nonlinear analysis of shear walls under seismic loads for recoverability are complicated and challenging, which demands nonlinear computer modeling procedures. This paper presents a novel finite element named Double Vertical Beam-column with Shell Element (DVBSE) for the nonlinear analysis of complex reinforced concrete shear walls with columns. The DVBSE is implemented in the open-source finite element program OpenSees. The theoretical formulations of DVBSE are described in detail. The accuracy of the developed DVBSE is established by comparing the finite element analysis results with existing experimental data on recoverable steel-GFRP composite bar reinforced concrete shear walls. The comparative study demonstrates that the proposed DVBSE is superior to the commonly used finite element model in simulating the responses of recoverable complex shear walls under seismic loads. These research findings contribute to further advancements in the development of new shear wall elements and lay a solid foundation for the nonlinear numerical simulation of innovative shear walls.

Highlights • A new finite element DVBSE is developed for modeling shear walls under seismic loads. • The DVBSE incorporates vertical fiber-based beam-column elements and shell elements. • The DVBSE is implemented in the open-source finite element program OpenSees. • The accuracy of the DVBSE is verified by test results of recoverable complex shear walls. • The DVBSE offers an efficient approach to simulate the seismic behavior of shear walls.