Ali Tavakoli - Amirkabir University, Tehran, iran
M.S Labafzadeh - international Institute of earthquake engineering and Seismology, Tehran, iran

Earthquakes are possible events in seismic area. Shear walls are one of the most common lateral load resisting systems in medium height buildings. This study investigates an effective modeling approach that discusses opening in RC shear wall and ductility behavior. Coupled and slit shear walls were introduced to improve the ductility behavior. On these walls, by distributing local flexural plastic hinges along the height of the wall, the wall ductile behavior has increased and the ability to dissipate energy is provided in the entire height of the wall. The results show much higher energy dissipation for shear walls with opening comparison with the ordinary ones. This study tried to probe the effect of the openings by considering limitations of experimental studies, using the finite element method and the studies carried out on the shear hinge. The results show that despite a small reduction in the strength of shear walls with opening, energy dissipation and ductile behavior of shear wall increase. Based on these studies, it is suggested that an opening in the middle of the height of the wall will be the most appropriate opening.

RC shear walls, Ductile behavior, Opening, Finite element model, Energy dissipation