Large and small-scale modeling of squat shear walls to simulate cyclic behavior

Reinforced concrete squat walls with an aspect ratio less than 2 are prevalent in low-rise construction and at lower levels of tall buildings or nuclear power plants. They show a significant amount of shear deformation as compared to bending deformation. Shear strength governs the design of such walls. Prediction of seismic behavior, and followed by the design of these systems need an efficient modeling method. this study calibrates the effective modeling parameters of squat shear walls in small and large scales based on the test results. The modeling to be accomplished initially with non-linear finite element software on small scale (Vector2) and then with software by large scaleability (OpenSees), and the results were calibrated with test results. The study results show nonlinear finite element software has high accuracy in squat shear wall modeling. However, if a large-scale squat shear wall modeling along with a three-dimensional structure is required, on condition of a suitable aspect ratio, this paper is recommended to use OpenSees software.