Tousif Mahmood, Ahmed A. Gheni and Mohamed ElGawady
Tousif Mahmood, Ph.D Candidate, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65401, U.S.A., tmrkw@mst.edu
Ahmed A. Gheni, Lecturer, Civil Engineering Department, Komar University of Science and Technology, Sulaymaniyah, Iraq., ahmed.gheni@komar.edu.iq
Mohamed ElGawady, Professor and Benavides Faculty Scholar, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65401, U.S.A., elgawadym@mst.edu
ABSTRACT
The flexural behavior of full scale fully grouted special reinforced masonry shear walls, which are exceeding the axial load limits and maximum reinforcement criteria of TMS 402/602 has been investigated. This is part of an ongoing research that focuses to overcome the issues in the design of intermediate and special reinforced masonry shear walls according to current TMS 402 provisions, which limits the flexural reinforcement ratio. The walls have been subjected to relatively heavy axial loading that equal to 1.5 times the allowed axial load limit per the TMS code. This posed a very practical design issue where the ρmax as per TMS 402/602 becomes less than ρprovided or even negative. The examined walls met the design requirements for special reinforced masonry shear walls. The walls were tested to failure under in-plane cyclic lateral loading to investigate the effects of the level of axial compressive stress on the inelastic behavior and ductility of the three walls out of which two were non-conforming to TMS 402/602. Tensile yielding of the vertical reinforcement has been observed for walls non confirming to TMS 402/602 along with the characteristic formation of plastic hinge zone at the bottom of the walls. Experimental findings of these full-scale walls have found TMS 402 to be conservative on design parameters such as masonry strain at failure, tensile strain factor and axial load limits.
KEYWORDS: Reinforced Masonry, Shear walls, Fully Grouted, Ductility, Seismic Loads, TMS
