Simplification of reinforced detailing in earthquake-resistant coupled wall systems through use of high-strength hooked steel fibers

Professor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Reinforced Concrete coupled walls consist of two or more walls connected by short beams referred to as coupling beams. During a seismic event, coupling beams increase the system’s lateral stiffness and improve energy dissipation through inelastic deformations. Coupling beams, however, often require extensive reinforcement, including large diagonal bars and heavy confinement reinforcement. Although such extensive reinforcement ensures adequate seismic behavior, it also makes the construction of the coupling beams costly and challenging. 

In this presentation, the use of high-strength hooked steel fibers to simplify reinforcement detailing in coupling beams and walls will be discussed. Results from reversed cyclic load tests of coupling beams indicate that the use of high-strength hooked steel fibers significantly contributes to both the shear strength and deformation capacity of coupling beams, allowing the elimination of diagonal bars in beams with a span-to-depth ratio of 2 or greater. When used in critical regions of walls, high-strength hooked steel fibers enabled significant reductions in transverse reinforcement in the boundary regions, resulting in drift ratio capacities exceeding 3%

Gustavo J. Parra-Montesinos has been a Professor of Structural Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 2012. Between 2000 and 2012, he served as assistant and associate professor of Structural Engineering at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2000 and 1997, respectively, and his BS degree in Civil Engineering from Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1994. Professor Parra-Montesinos’ research interests include the inelastic behavior of reinforced concrete, fiber-reinforced concrete, and composite steel-concrete members, particularly under earthquake motions.

Professor Parra-Montesinos has received numerous professional awards from the American Concrete Institute (ACI), including the Concrete International Award, the Arthur J. Boase Award, the Charles S. Whitney Medal, the Wason Medal for Most Meritorious Paper, the Chester Paul Siess Award for Excellence in Structural Research, and the Young Member Award for Professional Achievement. He is also a recipient of the ASCE Walter L. Huber Research Prize, the Top 25 Newsmaker Award from Engineering News Record, and the EERI Shah Family Innovation Prize. Professor Parra-Montesinos has been a member of the ACI 318 (Building Code) Committee since 2008. He is also a member of ACI Sub-Committees 318-C and 318-H, ACI-ASCE Committees 335 and 352, and the ACI Structural Journal Editorial Board. He is a past Chair of ACI-ASCE Committees 335 and 352, and of ACI Sub-Committee 318-J.