Reinforced concrete shell structures have been widely used in a variety of modern engineering applications. It is found from earthquake reconnaissance that reinforced concrete (RC) shell structures, such as nuclear containments, cooling towers, roof domes, shear walls, etc., are the key elements in resisting earthquake disturbances. This paper presents the development of a finite element analysis (FEA) program, SCS-3D, to predict the inelastic behavior of RC shell structures. In the program, a Cyclic Softened Membrane Model (CSMM)-based shell element is developed based on the degenerated shell theory with a layered approach and taking into account the CSMM developed at the University of Houston. To form the FEA program, the constitutive relation modules and the analysis procedure were implemented into a finite element program development framework, OpenSees developed at UC Berkeley. Several large-scale structural tests were employed to validate the developed FEA program, including RC panels subjected to a combination of shear and bending, three-dimensional RC shear wall and cylindrical RC tanks subjected to reversed cyclic loading.

No abstract

No abstract

The proposed method, called the Taiwan Earthquake Assessment for Structures by Pushover Analysis (TEASPA), is a modified capacity spectrum method developed in the NCREE handbook after the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake. In this study, the evaluation of TEASPA is carried out using results from an experimental campaign comprised of two pushover tests inlow-rise reinforced concrete (RC) school buildings and the ASCE 41 capacity spectrum method. In addition, three problems related to retrofitting design are also discussed. Those are the removal of short columns in the structure, the optimal selection of the RC jacketing's position, and waterproofing problems in the RC jacketing method. The base shear-roof displacement curve, peak ground acceleration, and failure mechanism are calculated from each analysis. The results show that TEASPA is capable of providing accurate results for assessing a low-rise RC building's capacity and is more appropriate to pushover tests. Moreover, the solutions related to retrofitting problems are provided.

No abstract