Investigation of the shear-lag effects on the response of L-shaped RC shear walls

In this study, the shear-lag effects are evaluated on the performance of L-shaped reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls. At first, 42 L-shaped RC shear walls are simulated employing the FlashLab program, and then, the numerical analyses are performed due to the cyclic loading applied within the framework of ABAQUS software. Based on the results of the numerical studies and taking into account the shear-lag effects, axial strain as well as axial deformation distribution are obtained for L-shaped RC shear walls. Thereafter, on the strength of the evolutionary polynomial regression (EPR) and genetic algorithm, new expressions have been developed and introduced for L-shaped sections which allow quick estimation of the axial strain and deformation distributions. The reliability of the proposed expressions has then been examined based on the coefficient of determination, of which the average values for the axial strain and deformation are 80 and 72 percent, respectively. Also, the results of the proposed expression are compared with those of the previous studies for non-rectangular RC shear walls. Finally, on account of the Mean Absolute Relative Error (MARE) index attained for the proposed expressions to that of the previous studies available in the literature, the uniform distribution exhibits the best performance in the response prediction of L-shaped RC walls. Furthermore, calculation of the MARE values indicates that the established formulations can respectively predict the axial strain and deformation of L-shaped RC shear walls with average error of 65 and 54 percent of the MARE values of the available expressions addressed in the literature.