Nonlinear finite element analysis of shearwalls with various types of openings

Abstract

The installation of new opening is necessary for remodeling project, house merging type. Current structural design code cannot provide the deterministic way for designing the shear walls with openings. So many engineers prefer to retrofit the perforated wall area for the structural safety. For the safe design of retroftitting, for the perforated structural walls, we carried out nonlinear finite element analysis to find the coupling effect of remaing walls. Specifically, many types of shapes were considered and various area of rectangular openings were analyzed. For the effective retrofitting, door shape and such area about 20% of wall is appropriate for retrofitting of reinforced concrete shearwalls.