Damage tracking and hysteresis-based evaluation of seismic-excited RC shear wall using monitoring data

Reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls play an important role as the seismic resisting system in tall buildings. Yet, assessing the seismic damage of real-world shear walls remains a challenging task. In this study, a damage index that relies on the vibration data measured by the sensors embedded in the structure is proposed to evaluate the damage condition of shear walls. The damage index is formed by the linear combination of two normalized terms, which, respectively, characterize the peak and the cumulative damages of the shear walls with little knowledge of real-life structural hysteresis. The damage tracking and evaluation based on the substructure level and the story level are discussed. The damage indices evaluated using the hysteretic loops made by the shear and bending information of the shear wall are further compared. The feasibility of the proposed damage index is examined using a numerically simulated 12-story coupled shear wall structure. It is then applied to analyze the experiments regarding the damage condition of RC shear walls under earthquakes. Results show that the proposed damage index can track the damage states of RC shear walls under seismic excitations. Analysis suggests that the proposed damage index could trace and distinguish the progression of shear and flexural damages, which potentially supports the post-earthquake structural safety management.