A methodology towards reducing the wind return period in reinforced concrete shear walls considering reserve capacity

This paper develops a methodology to reduce the wind return period in tall reinforced concrete shear walls considering their reserve capacity. A set of 12 reinforced concrete shear walls part of an office building is selected and designed in accordance with ACI 318-19 and ASCE 7–22. Pushover analysis is then used to examine their lateral response and estimate a wind force modification factor. Wind-tunnel pressure records obtained from the Tokyo Polytechnic University aerodynamic database are utilized to evaluate through incremental dynamic wind analysis the collapse performance of the buildings designed using the standard method, and those redesigned using the proposed wind force modification factor; namely, their probability of failure under design wind load is interrogated. The results show that leveraging the reserve capacity of reinforced concrete shear walls can represent a viable alternative to the traditional elastic design method, provided that a reduced mean recurrence interval is justified for ultimate limit states. The proposed design procedure can potentially contribute to saving construction time and cost.