Numerical Modelling of Reinforced Concrete Walls in Nuclear and Industrial Structures Under Seismic Loading

This year marks ten years since the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and the following Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. This accident has created a critical need to quantify the seismic response of such critical structures under different levels of seismic hazard. Most seismic-related research studies have been conducted on reinforced concrete walls employed in conventional buildings; however, such walls in nuclear and industrial structures are uniquely designed with very low aspect ratios and relatively large thicknesses. Therefore, several studies have demonstrated that the seismic performance of reinforced concrete walls in nuclear and industrial structures has not been yet adequately quantified to enable robust seismic risk assessment. In this respect, the current study uses a multi-layer shell element in OpenSees to develop a numerical model that can simulate the seismic response of reinforced concrete shear walls with low aspect ratios similar to those used in nuclear and industrial structures. Subsequently, the developed model is validated against the results of several walls tested in previous experimental programs under cyclic loading. The validation results show that the developed model can capture the response of the walls including the initial stiffness, peak load, stiffness degradation, strength deterioration, hysteretic shape, and pinching behaviour at different drift levels.