Author : Islam M. Ezz EL-Arab

It is a well-known fact that the Coupled shear walls are common lateral load-resisting structural components in high-rise Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings, in which the coupling beams spanning across the openings are normally the most critical elements. Because of architectural considerations and the need to accommodate service voids, these beams are usually of small dimensions and small stiffness as compared with the wall piers in turn. Therefore, the coupling beams often experience very high induced bending and shear stresses under lateral loads. The seismic response of high rise buildings with different height, 10, 20, and 40 stories building are investigated for the three real earthquake excitations, namely; El-Centro, 1940, Northridge, 1994, and Loma prieta, 1989 to analyze and evaluate the effect of the geometry parameters (Span/depth) ratios (1, 2, 4 and 6), and the aspect ratio of the shear wall height to building width effects on the monolithic reinforcement concrete coupling beams of symmetrical coupled shear wall system.

Keywords: Seismic response; coupling beams; coupled shear wall; high rise building.

Article published in International Journal of Current  Engineering  and Technology, Vol.2,No.4 (Dec- 2012)