Title:
Comparisons of Concrete Slender Wall Software with Full-Scale Experiments
Author(s):
Gloriana Moua
Publication:
Web Session
Volume:
ws_s22_GlorianaMoua..pdf
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
Keywords:
DOI:
Date:
3/28/2022
Abstract:
In 1981, American Concrete Institute’s (ACI) Southern California Chapter and the Structural Engineers Association of Southern California (SEAOSC) conducted full-scale slender wall testing in effort to analyze the behavior and develop design recommendations of concrete and masonry slender walls when subjected to lateral out-of-plane and eccentric axial loads. Twelve 24-foot-tall concrete “tilt-up” walls were tested, three each of four different height-to-thickness ratios: 30 (9½” thick), 40 (7¼”), 50 (5¾”), and 60 (4¾”). The results justified removal of a fixed limitation on the height-to-thickness ratio if special second order analyses are conducted when evaluating the strength and deflection of the wall. ACI 318’s current Alternative method for out-of-plane slender wall analysis is a direct descendent of this testing program’s recommendations. As technology “advances”, computer software programs and modules are being developed to “improve” and potentially “outsmart” seemingly out-of-date ACI 318 provisions. However, there has been a real concern circulating within portions of the engineering community that some of these newer numerical tools engineers are depending on, disagree with original experimental testing results and could pose safety and serviceability issues to designs. This presentation reintroduces the original testing that was performed by ACI/SEAOSC and the closely tied ACI provisions, then proceeds with this study’s efforts to duplicate the full-scale testing results within multiple different commercially available software programs whose names will be hidden. Knowing which program features contribute and/or conflict with original testing can lead to an understanding of why there are these discrepancies occurring within the engineering community.