Lateral Response of Pendulum Unbonded Post-Tensioned Shear Walls
Open AccessUnbonded, Post-tensioned, Shear Walls (UPSWs) constitute a standard shear wall type which has achieved wide acceptance throughout several building codes. They have successfully proven to provide a building with the desired horizontal response capabilities given their self-centering characteristics, yet extreme seismic impacts can result in residual damages that cause critical structural and economic consequences. An innovative shear wall concept named Pendulum Unbonded Post-Tensioned Shear Wall will be introduced and investigated with experimental procedures in the following chapters. The Pendulum UPSW system consists of a wall member with a circular-shaped bottom profile resting on a base. When the wall is subjected to horizontal accelerations, it will rotate about the circle center of the wall-to-base interface along which it will glide back and forth, reminding of the motion of an inverted pendulum, while the base remains rigidly connected to the floor slab. The self-centering behavior is secured by four post-tensioning tendons, of which the restoring force activated by the wall’s out-of-center displacement, will pull the wall back to its initial position. Given continuous contact along the circular wall-to-base surface, stress will be more equally distributed in the toe areas, and more significantly, the gliding motion will cause kinematic energy to dissipate to into heat energy as a result of friction. The aim of this research and related experimental conduct is to demonstrate that the proposed Pendulum UPSW remains mostly damage-free after major earthquake events and hence, bears the potential to overcome traditional material failure limit states.
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