KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering (2013) 17(2):403-414 DOI 10.

1007/s12205-013-1286-9

Structural Engineering

www.springer.com/12205

Seismic Behavior of RC Coupled Shear Walls with Strengthened Coupling Beams by Bonded Thin Composite Plates
S. A. Meftah*, F. Mohri**, and E. M. Daya***
Received July 30, 2010/Accepted April 19, 2012

Abstract
The present study investigates the dynamic analysis of Reinforced Concrete (RC) coupled shear walls strengthened by bonded Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite plates applied on both sides of the coupling beams. For this purpose, new finite element models are developed for both the walls and strengthened coupling beams. In the validation process of the proposed model, static and free vibration analyses of coupled shear walls were firstly studied. Comparisons with ABAQUS code using shell elements were made and good agreement was observed. After this stage, dynamic analysis was carried out under El Centro and Northridge earthquake records. In these conceptual studies, the maximum top lateral deflection responses of strengthened and unstrengthened RC coupled shear walls are computed. The obtained results showed that mitigation of seismic behaviour of RC coupled shear walls by using CFRP bonded composite plates depends on the geometrical characteristics of shear wall structure and dominant range frequencies of the input earthquake records. Keywords: composite plate, earthquake, finite element, sandwich beam, strengthened structure, vibration

1. Introduction
Many reinforced concrete buildings have coupled shear walls to resist lateral loads due to earthquakes. The system is designed with the shear walls coupled with beams (coupling beams) that are the weak ductile links to dissipate energy from earthquake. Coupling beams are important structural elements in seismic design due to their ability to reduce bending moments at the base of coupled shear walls (Hindi and Hassan, 2004; Mancini and Savassi, 1999). Numerous analytical as well as experimental studies have been devoted to establish technical seismic design recommendations of coupled shear walls (Canadian standard association (1994); National Building Code of Canada). These studies found that the seismic behavior of coupled shear walls is directly linked to the Degrees of Coupling (DC), namely the ratio of stiffness of the coupling beam relative to the walls. In the analysis of coupled shear wall structures, commercial codes such as SAP2000 and ABAQUS are customized. In mesh process a combination of plane stress and beam elements are used to model shear walls and coupling beams respectively. Indeed, it is necessary to use a refined finite element model for

an accurate analysis of shear wall with openings. But it would be inefficient to subdivide the entire shear wall building into a finer mesh with a large number of elements because of the tremendous analysis time and computer memory costs. Continuum approaches have been frequently used for the dynamic analysis of coupled shear wall structures, where the discrete system of connecting beams is replaced by a homogeneous medium of equivalent properties (Kuang and Chau, 1999; Li and Choo, 1996). Mukherjee and coull (1972) and Coull and Mikherjee (1973) used the Galerkins method by representing the lateral deflection in terms of trigonometric series. An approximate formula for the natural frequencies has been obtained making use of Dunkerleys formula by considering the lateral deflection of coupling beam as a result of pure flexural and shear-flexural deflection terms (Retenberg, 1975). In all of these studies the Euler-Bernoulli beam model was adopted for the solid wall. In order to investigate the influence of shear deformation on the lateral deflection of coupled shear walls structures, the finite strip method was used (Cheung et al., 1998). However, the finite element method becomes more powerful for analysis of coupled shear wall structures due to their efficiency and accuracy by employing the shear wall element with drilling degree of freedom

*Associate Professor, Laboratoire des Structures et Matriaux, Universit de Sidi Bel Abbes, BP 89 Cit Ben Mhidi. 22000 Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria (Corresponding Author, E-mail: meftahs@yahoo.com) **Associate Professor, Universit de Lorraine, Laboratoire dEtude des Microstructures et de Mcanique des Matriaux (LEM3), UMR CNRS 7239, Ile du Saulcy F-57045, Metz Cedex01, France (E-mail: Foudil.MOHRI@iutnb.uhp-nancy.fr) ***Professor, Universit de Lorraine, Laboratoire dEtude des Microstructures et de Mcanique des Matriaux (LEM3), UMR CNRS 7239, Ile du Saulcy F57045, Metz Cedex01, France (E-mail: daya@lpmm.sciences.univ-metz.fr) 403

S. A. Meftah, F. Mohri, and E. M. Daya

such as the Kwans elements (Kwan, 1993) with rotational degrees of freedom defined as vertical fibre rotation to ensure the compatibility with the connecting lintel beam. More recently, Kim (2003), proposed an efficient method for dynamic analysis of coupled shear wall structures. This method is based on the use of fictitious beams to enforce the compatibility at the boundary of super element shear wall units. In order to control lateral deflection and inter-storey drift, adequate stiffness is required in RC buildings. In fact, different techniques were used in order to achieve satisfactory earthquake behaviour of RC coupled shear wall structures, such as isolation, energy absorption at plastic hinges and mechanical devices providing structural control (Julio et al., 2004; Jingning et al., 1999; Abhijit, 1999). It is well known that these techniques can lead to a change in seismic behaviour of the initial building. However, in recent years a promising technique adopting composite materials to retrofit deficient RC structures becoming more common. In the literature, the most research works undergoing in this field were concerned beam and plate structures separately (Tounsi, 2006; Shen et al., 2003; Chen and Teng, 2003; Teng et al., 2000; Benyoucef et al., 2006). Few studies are dedicated to strengthened coupled shear walls (Meftah et al., 2006, 2007a,b; Balsamo et al., 2005). The objective of this study is to develop a numerical model for seismic analysis of RC coupled shear walls with coupling beams strengthened by CFRP bonded composite thin-plates in the two sides of the element. For this aim, a three-layered finite element sandwich beam including shear deformation was developed for coupling beams strengthened by bonded composite plates. For wall segments, another finite element was formulated where the number of DOF is reduced by condensation technique from 12 to eight. The assembly procedure, the compatibility between the wall unit and strengthened coupling beam is checked in the assembly process. The accuracy of the proposed elements is studied by comparison to ABAQUS simulations.

Fig. 1. Kinematic and Properties of a Three-layered Sandwich Beam

1978) is adopted in these layers and E(i), h(i), A(i), I(i) denote respectively Youngs modulus, thickness, cross section area and moment of inertia of area of the layer i. In Layer 2, the shear stiffness is considered and the shear modulus is denoted by G. - The displacement is continuous along the interfaces between the core and faces. Thus, the axial displacements at the interface between layers 1 & 2 and 2 & 3 are respectively given by: h (2 ) h(1) - = u(1) ( x ) ------(x) u (2) ( x ) + ( x ) -----2 2 ) ) h(2h (3(3 ) = u ( x ) + -----(x) u (2) ( x ) ( x ) -----2 2 (1a) (1b)

In matrix formulation, these expressions can be rewritten as: h (2) h (1) u (2) ( x ) ------ ----- u (1 )( x ) 1 2 2 (x) = (2) ) h(3) h (2 u ( x ) 1 ------ ----- ( x ) 2 2

(2)

The layer 2 of the sandwich beam is considered as Timoshenko beam element with shear deformation taken into account by assuming uniform shear distribution along the height of the cross section of the beam. The Timoshenko beam element is formulated with two nodes, where each node has 4 DOF (Two rotations and two displacements) as depicted in Fig. 2. The beam element has eight DOF arranged as:
(2) v u (2) v } T = { u1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2

2. Finite Element Approach for Three-Layered Sandwich Beam

In this section, a three-layered sandwich finite element is presented for RC coupled shear walls with coupling beams strengthened with bonded thin composite plates 2.1 Kinematic The coupling beam element is formulated as three-layered sandwich beam with distinct layers 1, 2 and 3 as shown in Fig. 1. Each layer has its own geometric and material properties with a superscript ( i) denoting the layer number i (1i3). The following assumptions common to many works (Cupial and Niziol, 1995; Rao, 1978 ; Hu et al., 2005) are adopted: - All points on a normal to the beam have the same transverse displacement. - The top and bottom layers (i=1, 3) are assumed to have no shear stiffness, therefore the Euler Bernoulli beam theory (Rao,

(3)

The rotation (x) is defined in terms of x derivative of vertical displacement v(x) as: ( x ) = -----------v(x) x (4)

The axial displacement of each point withen the layer 2 is done as: u ( x, y ) = u ( x ) + y ( x )
(2 )

(5)

Fig. 2. Timoshenkos Beam Element with Two Rotational DOF at Each Node
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Taking derivative of this equation with respect to y, one then obtains: ( x ) = ---------------- u ( x, y ) y (6)

2.2 Strain Field The axial strains in the middle lines of layers 1, 2 and 3 are given respectively by: u(1) ( x ) x (2) ( x ) u (2)x = ----------------x u(3) ( x ) (3)x = ----------------x (1)x = ----------------Additionally, the shear strain in the layer 2 is defined as: (7a) (7b) (7c)
Fig. 3. Proposed of Basic Wall Element

xy ( x ) = ( x ) + ( x )

(8)

2.3 Derivation of Stiffness Matrix of Three-layered Sandwich Beam Element The strain energy is due to axial deformation of the three layers and shear strain contribution in layer 2. Strain energy in each layer is defined as:
U U
(1)

depicted in Fig. 3. Three lateral displacements u1, u2 and u3 and three rotations of the vertical fibres 1, 2 and 3 are respectively assigned to the bottom, top and the middle levels of the wall element. Again, for each level, one defines vertical displacements v1 and v2 in the bottom level, v3 and v4 in the top level and v5 and v6 in the middle level. According to wall behaviour under lateral loads, the following variations of the strain within the wall element are considered:
x ( x ) = 0 y ( x, y ) = a1 + a2 y + ( a3 + a4 y + a5 y2 + a6 y3 )x xy ( y ) = a7 + a8 y + a9 y2

1 ( 1) (1) l ( 1) 1 (1) ( 1) l ( x ) 2 - E A 0 ( ( x ) )2 dx + -- dx - E I 0 -----------= - x 2 2 1 (x) -- E(2) I( 2) 0l - E( 2) A(2) 0l ( ( 2) ( x ) )2 dx + 1 ------------= -dx x 2 2 1 ( 2) l - kA G 0 ( xy ( x ) ) 2 dx + -2

2

(11) (12) (13)

(9a)

(2)

After integrating of relationships (15-17) we arrive to the displacements within the wall element given by:
a2 2 a4 2 a5 2 a6 4 (14) v ( x, y ) = a10 + a1 y + ---y + a11 + a3 y + ---y + ---- y + ---- y x 2 2 2 4 a8 a3 2 a9 a4 3 a5 4 a6 5 - y + ---- ---- y ----- y ----- y (15) u ( y ) = a12 + ( a7 a11 ) y + ------------ 3 6 2 12 20

(9b) (9c)

(3)

1 (x) 2 -- E(3) I( 3) 0l - E( 3) A(3) 0l ( ( 3) ( x ) )2 dx + 1 -----------= -dx x 2 2

k is the shear coefficient or section shape factor (k = 2/12 for rectangular section shape). The total strain energy of the three layered sandwich beam is then: U = U (1) + U (2) + U (3) (10)

Solving the 12 ai coefficients by equating the nodal translation and rotations DOF of the element and substituting their back into Eqs. (18), (19), the displacement functions in terms of nodal DOF of the element are obtained. Again, the strain energy of the wall element is obtained from bending and shear contribution UB and US as: U= UB + US (16)

Linear shape function are assumed for axial displacement u(2) (x) and shear strain xy(x), cubic function for the vertical displacement v(x) is used in natural coordinate. Applying virtual variation to strain deformation , The element (2) (2) v1, 2, 1 u2 stiffness matrix is derived in terms of { b}T={u1 v2 2, 2} vector. In order to reduce the DOF of the beam element the static condensation technique is applied to the model (Kim and Lee, 2003). As the horizontal fibre rotation 1 and 2 has no direct relation with the corresponding values at the wall side of the beam-wall joint, it is reasonable to treat rotations of the vertical fibres 1 and 2 at section ends as external rotations.

Bending and shear strain energies, written in terms of strains, are the followings:
1 - E ( y ( x ) )2 dvol UB = -2 vol 1 - G ( xy ( x ) )2 dvol US = -2 vol

(17) (18)

The strain energy of the wall can be formulated as a quadratic function of wall DOF vector as follow:
1 - { }T [ KW ] { } U = -2

3. Shear Wall Finite Element

3.1 Basic Formulation The proposed 2D shear wall element with dimensions (b, h) is
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(19)

{ } denotes wall displacement vector and [Kw] is the wall stiffness matrix. { } components are:

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T = { u1 1 v1 v2 u2 2 v3 v4 u3 3 v5 v 6 }

(20)

by employing the condensation technique matrix the 12 DOF of wall element can be reduced to 8 DOF by eliminating the displacements and rotation of the middle level (i.e., u3, v5, v6, 3). Lets the system stiffness matrix equation of the structure be given in partitioned form as:
Kii Kia i Fi = Kai Kaai a Fa

Table 1. Lateral Deflection of Unstrengthened and Three-layered Sandwich Beam TSB1 Without upper and lower Sandwich beam structure layers (unstrengthened) (mm) (mm) 9.7708 5.566 9.792 5.620 9.342 5.213

ABAQUS Present model classical laminate theory

(21)

where subscript a and i are assigned to the DOF for the active and inactive zones respectively. Taking {Fi} as zero and eliminating { i}, the matrix equation is reduced to:
* ]{ } = { F } [ KW a a * where the equivalent stiffness matrix [K W ] is given by: * [ KW ] = [ Kaa ] [ Kai ] [ Kii ]1 [ Kia ]

Table 2. Lateral Deflection of Unstrengthened and Three-layered Sandwich Beam TSB2 Without upper and lower Sandwich beam structure layers (unstrengthened) (mm) (mm) 2.960 1.740 2.972 1.730 2.839 1.616

(22)

ABAQUS Present model classical laminate theory

(23) analysis of these beams under concentrated loads applied at the free end is performed to check the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed analysis method. The beam deflections at the free ends of the two sandwich beams are summarized in Tables 1 and 2 respectively. The lateral displacements computed by the present method employing one three-layered sandwich beam element are compared with those obtained by the classical laminate theory (Emam and Nayfeh, 2009) that neglects the shear deformation in the core layer and standard finite element analysis package ABAQUS, where shell elements (S8R5) are adopted. The composite sheets are divided in some elements along the beam. For the middle layer, many elements are needed through beam depth and along the beam span. The beam mesh and deflection are viewed in Fig. 5. Good agreement of the present model and ABAQUS code is remarked. The difference between the two models is within the range of 1%. 4.2 Free Vibration of Cantilever Shear Wall Structures with Different Aspect Ratio In this paragraph one presents results of fundamental frequencies of a number of RC shear walls with dimensions (H, b, e). In the analysis, the wall width b and thickness e are constant, different

and the active vector { a} is defined by: { a } T = { u1 1 v1 v2 u2 2 v4 v5 } (24)

4. Numerical Approach
The present model is performed with development of a Fortran program for static and dynamic of coupled shear walls structures. Before proceeding to dynamic analysis, the applicability of the structural model is first checked under static loads with numerical finite elements results obtained from ABAQUS Software. After the validation process, the shear walls with openings are analysed under seismic loads. 4.1 Static Analysis of Three-layered Sandwich Beam Structure In this introduction example, two cantilever three-layered sandwich beams called TSB1 and TSB2 are studied. The geometrical characteristics of the beams are depicted in Fig. 4. The materials properties used for the upper and lower layers are of steel E(1) = 210 GPa. The middle layer of the beams is a reinforced concrete material with E(2) = 30 GPa and Poissons ratio = 0.2. Static

Fig. 4. Geometric Characteristics of Cantilever Three-layered Sandwich Beam: (a) TSB1, (b) TSB2

Fig. 5. Deflection of Cantilever Sandwich Beam Modelled with Abaqus Shell Elements
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Fig. 6. Cantilever Shear Wall Structure: (a) Geometrical Properties, (b) Finite Element Modelling (ABAQUS)

Fig. 7. Convergence Study of Cantilever Shear Wall Structure in Free Vibration Analysis

Fig. 8. Coupled Shear Wall Structure: (a) Geometrical Characteristics, (b) Finite Element Modeling ABAQUS Table 3. Material Properties of Coupled Shear Wall Structure Youngs modulus Coupling beams Shear wall Upper layer E(1) = 140 GPa Middle layer E(2) = 30 GPa Lower layer E(3) = 140 GPa E = 30 GPa Poissons ratio 0.2 0.2 Material density 2500 kg/m3 2500 kg/m3

wall heights H were considered in the study. The wall geometry is shown in Fig. 6(a). ABAQUS mesh model follows in Fig. 6(b). The material characteristics are E=30 GPa, = 0.2, r = 2400 kg/m3. Figure 7 depicts the variation of the eigenfrequencies of the shear wall structures according to their aspect ratio (H/b) varying from 1.0 to 4.0. The results given by the proposed element and Kwans element (Kwan, 1993) using one element are compared to ABAQUS shell elements. The proposed element is in good agreement with ABAQUS for all the aspect ratio. Kwan element overestimates the fundamental eigenfrequencies in the case of small aspect ratio. 4.3 Static and Free Vibration Analyses of Strengthened Coupled Shear Wall Structure Static and free vibration analyses of coupled shear wall structures shown in Fig. 8(a) are studied here. The material properties of the structure are listed in Table 3. The structure was analysed twice. Firstly, without the strengthened plates and in the second way by employing sheets in coupling beams. The analyses were performed using the proposed finite elements and ABAQUS programme, where the adopted mesh is pictured in Fig. 8(b). Table 4 shows the top displacements under a concentrated static load of 500 kN applied at the top end. The first fundamental eigenfrequency of the wall is enclosed. It is observed that results from the present model agree very well with those obtained by ABAQUS in static and vibration for unstrengthened as well as for the strengthened structures.
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Table 4. Comparison Results of Static and Free Vibration Analysis of Coupled Shear Wall Structure Unstrengthened coupled Strengthened coupled shear wall shear wall 1st 1st Top Top displacement frequency displacement frequency (mm) (mm) (Hz) (Hz) 3.445 32.901 3.062 33.199 3.066 33.075 2.937 33.435 2.701 34.110 2.661 34.229

ABAQUS Present Classical laminate theory

5. Parametric Investigations
5.1 Time-history Analysis In this section, the coupled shear wall structures are subjected to time-history analysis using two different earthquake records. For consistant analysis, all earthquake records are scaled to the peak acceleration of 1.0g (g = 9.81 m/s2). Duration of strong motion and range of dominant frequencies have been kept unchanged

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Fig. 9. El Centro Earthquake: (a) Earthquake Acceleration Record, (b) Power Density Spectrum

Fig. 10. Northridge Earthquake: (a) Earthquake Acceleration Record, (b) Power Density Spectrum

The proportionality factors 1 , 2 can be obtained from: and are evaluated by Welchs method (Welch, 1967) using fast Fourier transform techniques. The earthquake records considered for the investigation of the dynamic response of strengthened coupled shear wall structures are: El Centro with duration of strong motion in the range of 1.5-5.5 s and dominant frequencies in the range 0.39-6.39 Hz. The earthquake acceleration is shown in Fig. 9(a). The power density spectrum follows in Fig. 9(b). Northridge with duration of strong motion in the range of 3.5 to 8 s and dominant frequencies in the range 0.14 to 1.07 Hz. The earthquake acceleration record is shown in Fig. 10(a). The power density spectrum follows in Fig. 10(b). The time history analyses is conducted by considering the damping matrix of the structural model to be proportional to the stiffness and mass matrices by Rayleighs proportionality factors (Clough and Penzien, 1993). In the present analysis devoted to concrete material, the 1st and 2nd vibration modes are selected, and the viscous damping is fixed to 5% of critical damping. The Newmark step by-step time integration method (Newmark, 1959) was employed to obtain the solution of the dynamic equation, expressed as: ( t ) + [ C ] D ( t ) + [ D ] D ( t ) = [ M ] lD ( t ) (25) [M ]D
g

2 j p 2 1 = -------------, = -------------j + p 2 j + p

(27)

Where j and p are two chosen natural frequencies of the coupled shear wall structures, which are determined by solving the undamped eigenvalue equation: [K] [M] = 0
2

(28)

in which, [C] and [K] are the global damping and stiffness ( t ) and D ( t ) are matrices of the structures, respectively, D ( t ) , D , the relative displacement, velocity and acceleration vectors of the structure with respect to base; l is a location vector which defines ( t ) is the horizontal the location of effective seismic loads and D g ground acceleration. The damping matrix of the model is assumed to be proportional to the stiffness and mass matrices by the Rayleighs proportionality factors (Clough and Penzien, 1993). 1 , 2 as follows: [ C ] = 1[ M ] + 2 [ K ] (26)

5.2 Parametric Study The finite element model proposed is applied to 4 examples coupled shear walls having 3, 6, 10 and 20 stories to investigate the effects of the geometrical characteristics of the coupling beams on enhancing as far as possible the Degree of Coupling (DC) and therefore reducing the peak top displacement of structures subjected to El Centro and Northridge earthquake records. The geometric parameters of coupled shear walls are presented in Fig. 11. The height Hb of the coupling beams has been varied from 0.2 to 1 m. The length l of the coupling beam has been changed from 0.5 to 3 m. The material properties of the reinforced concrete and the composite plates adopted in this study are respectively: - Concrete E(2) = 20 GPa, = 0.2, r = 2400 Kg/m3 - CFRP Composite sheets: E(1) = E(3) = 140 GPa As mentioned in the Canadian Concrete Standard (CSA), the DC is defined as the portion of the base overturning moment carried by the axial tension and compression forces resulting from shears in the coupling beams. In the major modern codes such as CSA , DC is directly linked to the seismic force modification (reduction) factor, R, as follow:
DC 0.66 R = 4 DC < 0.66 R = 3.5

More recent study in this field carried out by Chaallal et al.

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Fig. 11. Geometric Characteristics of Coupled Shear Walls Considered in Parametric Study

Fig. 13. Variation of DC of 06 Stories Coupled Shear Wall Structure: (a) Typical Plot of DC versus H, (b) Typical Plot of DC versus l

Fig. 12. Variation of DC of 03 Stories Coupled Shear Wall Structure: (a) Typical Plot of DC versus H, (b) Typical Plot of DC versus l

(1996) shows that there exists no unique limit value of DC that can be reasonably assumed for coupled shear walls. The limiting values of DC are as follow:
0.101 DC 0.316 for 6 stories buildings 0.211 DC 0.561 for 10 stories buildings 0.304 DC 0.420 for 20 stories buildings
Fig. 14. Variation of DC of 10 Stories Coupled Shear Wall Structure: (a) Typical Plot of DC versus H, (b) Typical Plot of DC versus l

display good performances of the CFRP plates to enhance the DC of coupled shear walls Typical plots of DC versus Hb and l are presented in Figs. 12-15
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for different numbers of stories likewise. As can be seen, figures display good performances of the CFRP plates to enhance the

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Fig. 17. Top Deflection Response of 06 Stories Coupled Shear Wall Structure

Fig. 15. Variation of DC of 03 Stories Coupled Shear Wall Structure: (a) Typical Plot of DC versus H, (b) Typical Plot of DC versus l

Fig. 18. Top Deflection Response of 10 Stories Coupled Shear Wall Structure

DC of coupled shear walls within or beyond the limiting values. For instance, in the case of thin and slender coupling beams, bonded CFRP plates proved an efficient way to upgrading the seismic demand of coupled shear walls by modifying their seismic force factor R from 3.4 to 4 as recommended by the seismic cods. Figures 16-19 show time history responses obtained by the present model of coupled shear wall structures respectively of 3, 6, 10 and 20 stories at the top level before and after strengthening under El Centro earthquake. The time deflection response of the four types of strengthened coupled shear wall structures demonstrates that incorporation of CFRP composite plates can reduce the peak deflection of the structures under seismic loads.

Fig. 19. Top Deflection Response of 20 Stories Coupled Shear Wall Structure

Fig. 16. Top Deflection Response of 03 Stories Coupled Shear Wall Structure

Figures 20-23 illustrate the variation of the peak values of the top deflections according to beams height (Hb) expected by the structures strengthened by CFRP bonded composite sheets, compared with results of unstrengthened structures. These curves concern El Centro and Northridge earthquakes. One can remark, that for 3 and 6 stories (Figs. 20-21), the beam height Hb has no significant influence on coupled shear wall stiffness. No significant reduction of top deflection was noted for 10 and 20 stories shear walls subjected to El Centro earthquake (Figs. 22a, 23a). The effect of the CFRP composite bonded plates on reducing lateral displacement is remarked for 10 and 20 stories coupled shear walls under Northridge earthquake (Figs. 22b, 23b). Under this seismic loading, the highest reduction was achieved by 10-story coupled shear walls with beam heights Hb = 0.2 m with a reduction of 34%, this followed by 20 stories buildings
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Fig. 20. Variation of Peak Top Displacement of 03 Stories Structure versus Hb: (a) El Centro Earthquake, (b) Northridge Earthquake

Fig. 22. Variation of Peak Top Displacement of 10 Stories Structure versus Hb: (a) El Centro Earthquake, (b) Northridge Earthquake

Fig. 21. Variation of Peak Top Displacement of 06 Stories Structure versus Hb: (a) El Centro Earthquake, (b) Northridge Earthquake

Fig. 23. Variation of Peak Top Displacement of 03 Stories Structure versus Hb: (a) El Centro Earthquake, (b) Northridge Earthquake

with beam height Hb = 0.2 m with 20%. The effect of the coupling beams length (l) on coupled shear
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wall stiffness is pictured in Figs. 24-27 under the same earthquake forces and for the same coupled shear wall stories. In the

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case of 3 stories structures (Figs. 24a, 24b), no significant effect has been reported. For 6 stories structures, the effect of l on top

Fig. 24. Variation of Peak Top Displacement of 03 Stories Structure versus l: (a) El Centro Earthquake, (b) Northridge Earthquake

deflection is more noticeable compared to the 3-story structures. Reduction of 20% is reached under El Centro earthquake. In the case of 10 stories level under El Centro earthquake (Fig. 26a), the effect of l on top deflection is mitigated. A softening effect is observed for 1.25l2.25 m, but significant reduction was obtained for l values higher than 2.5. For l = 3 m, the reduction of top deflection is of order 40%. In the case of 20 stories building under El Centro earthquake (Fig. 27a), the results demonstrate that no hardening effect has been achieved on structure behaviour but the deflection increases with l. The structures become more vulnerable to seismic loads after strengthening with bonded composite sheets. Under the Northridge earthquake (Fig. 27b), the strengthening of the structure by composite sheets is more efficient for higher values of l. A summary of results for all models in terms of percentage reductions in peak values of top displacement is presented in Fig. 28. Results display very good performance in peak reduction of the structures (higher than 20%) for frequencies varying between 2.5477 Hz to 4.458 Hz under Northridge earthquake. This study has demonstrated the feasibility of using CFRP composite sheets to reduce the seismic response of coupled shear walls. It has been proved that the effect of CFRP composite sheets to reduce the top deflection is strongly dominated by the dominant frequency range of the earthquake records as source of resonance effects. It was probably due to this reason that there were no particular trends in the response under the earthquake loads.

Fig. 25. Variation of Peak Top Displacement of 06 Stories Structure versus l: (a) El Centro Earthquake, (b) Northridge Earthquake

Fig. 26. Variation of Peak Top Displacement of 10 Stories Structure versus l: (a) El Centro Earthquake, (b) Northridge Earthquake
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Fig. 27. Variation of Peak Top Displacement of 20 Stories Structure versus l: (a) El Centro Earthquake, (b) Northridge Earthquake

shear wall structure to enhance the seismic performances of strengthened couples shear walls has been studied. The results show that a substantial improving of seismic performances of strengthened couples shear walls by enhancing their DC and therefore the seismic-force modification factor R. Dynamic time history Seismic analysis results under El Centro and Northridge confirmed that substantial reduction in deflection of the RC coupled shear walls could be achieved by the bonded CFRP composite plates. Reduction of up to 40% in the peak values of the top deflection. In terms of reduction in the top deflection, the best performance was observed for l values higher than 2.5 m in the case of 10 and 20 stories level buildings. The comparison example show that, this method had some, but limited potential for mitigation the seismic response of 03 and 06 story buildings by varying the beam height Hb. Again, it has also indicated that, in the case of 10 and 20 story buildings a more significant structural improving can be obtained under Northridge earthquake rather then El Centro earthquake However, these performances have not been achieved in certain structural configuration, with a substantial amplification in lateral top displacement. This is due probably to resonance effect. This suggests determining the dominant frequencies range of the seismic record before any strengthening of RC coupled shear walls by employing the CFRP sheets. The outcome of this study will find applications in retrofitting high-rise buildings braced by coupled shear wall systems according to seismic codes.

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Fig. 28. Variation of Peak Displacement Reduction versus Fundamental Frequency of Unstrengthened Coupled Shear Walls

6. Conclusions
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