Author

POPESCU, G.; POPESCU, R.
IPCT STRUCTURI, Bucharest, Romania
Abstract

In the countries with a high seismic risk, like Romania, multi-storied masonry buildings are built with reinforced or confined shear walls that can resist better the lateral earthquake action. The shear walls are subjected to lateral in-plane forces and eccentric compression.

Cross sectional verification relies on comparing the design shear load and the design bending moment applied on the wall (VEd, MEd), determined with specialist software, with the representative design shear resistance and design bending resistance (VRd, MRd).
The resistance values determined after the Romanian Code seem to be conservative, as they underestimate shear resistance of masonry-confined walls. Consequently, for this structure system, the strength can be satisfied only by using significant quantities of materials, a limited architectural plan and high costs.
Therefore, the authors propose an alternative methodology, where the actual calculated strength capacity seems to be well in line with experimental results obtained.
Key words
confined masonry, design shear resistance, design moment of resistance