Bearing strength of steel coupling beam connections embedded reinforced concrete shear walls

In high multistory reinforced concrete buildings, coupled shear walls can provide an efficient structural system to resist horizontal force due to wind and seismic effects. Coupled shear walls are usually built over the whole height of the building and are laid out either as a series of walls coupled by beams and/or slabs or as a central core structure with openings to accommodate doors, elevator wells, windows and corridors. A number of recent studies have focused on examining the seismic response of concrete, steel, and composite coupling beams. However, since no specific equations are available for computing the bearing strength of steel coupling beam-wall connections, it is necessary to develop such strength equations. There were carried out analytical and experimental studies to develop the strength equations of steel coupling beams-concrete wall connections. Experiments were conducted to determine the factors influencing the bearing strength and to verify the strength equations of the steel coupling beam-wall connections. The proposed equations were in good agreement with both test results and other test data from the literature. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.