Seismic Behavior of Dual Ductility Shear Walls

In general, shear wall design is based on flexural ductility. In this design approach, behavior of the shear walls is more similar to a cantilever beam with significant bending moment at its base. In such systems, the main input energy dissipation during seismic events happens at the base of the shear wall. In this paper, in order to improve the behavior of these important lateral resisting mechanism in structural systems, the possibility of dual type behavior (flexural and shear) were investigated. At first, the potential of this approach in improving the behavior of shear walls has been examined in a simplified structural model. Later, three types of shear walls including slit walls, shear walls with opening and frame-wall systems have been studied. The results show the capability of dual ductility modes of behavior in all three systems. Energy dissipation dispersion in these systems is better than the ordinary shear walls. Among the dual ductility systems, the frame-wall system has shown a superior performance compared with that of the two other systems.