Reliability-based optimization of shear walls in RC shear wall-frame buildings subjected to earthquake loading

• Published in: Case Studies in Construction Materials 2022-06, Vol.16, p.e00978, Article e00978
• Main Authors: Abualreesh, Abdulrahman M., Tuken, Ahmet, Albidah, Abdulrahman, Siddiqui, Nadeem A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Earthquake; Optimization; Reliability index; Shear wall-frame buildings; Shear walls
• ISSN: 2214-5095; 2214-5095
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cscm.2022.e00978

In most reinforced concrete (RC) multistory buildings, shear walls are provided to resist lateral loads arising from wind and earthquakes of moderate to high magnitude. The quantity and location of these walls play a significant role in controlling the building response, reliability, and overall construction cost, and therefore need to be optimized. In the literature, shear wall quantity and location are optimized without due consideration of the desired reliability level, which leads to structural designs with unknown safety levels. This paper addresses this issue by introducing the desired reliability level as an additional constraint. The methodology is demonstrated with the help of a set of representative unsymmetrical and symmetrical RC shear wall-frame buildings subjected to the El-Centro earthquake. The results of the study illustrate that the reliability constraint is, in general, a governing constraint in the optimization process of RC shear wall-frame buildings subjected to earthquake forces. The study is expected to be useful for practicing engineers and researchers to achieve the desired level of safety in structural design. •In the past, shear walls were optimized without considering - reliability, resulting in structures with unknown safety levels.•By incorporating target reliability as an additional constraint, a methodology for optimizing shear walls is presented.•The methodology is demonstrated through a set of representative RC shear wall-frame buildings subjected to an earthquake.•The results illustrate that reliability is a governing constraint in optimizing RC shear walls against earthquake forces.