Title: Seismic design of precast concrete
rocking wall systems with varying
hysteretic damping
Date Published: September - October 2019
Volume: 64
Issue: 5
Page Numbers: 58 - 76
Authors: Maryam Nazari and Sri Sritharan
https://doi.org/10.15554/pcij64.5-04
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Abstract
Following the design practice for cast-in-place concrete walls in which energy dissipation is a byproduct
of the walls’ seismic response, force-based seismic
design of precast concrete rocking walls uses a response modification coefficient, or R factor, of 5 and
a minimum equivalent viscous damping ratio of about
8%. However, single rocking walls (SRWs) with total
damping of 6% and precast concrete walls with end
columns (PreWECs) designed with as much as 16%
damping showed satisfactory responses when subjected to shake-table testing. These findings suggest that
the current design approach used for precast concrete
rocking walls is unnecessarily restrictive and does not
account for the superior behavior of the wall systems
in design. To overcome this challenge, a damping-dependent R is proposed for the seismic design of precast
concrete rocking walls and its effectiveness is demonstrated using a parametric study. A cost index is also
developed to determine the relative benefits of SRWs
and PreWECs.