Damage analysis of multi-ribbed wall structures under monotonic lateral loads

Multi-ribbed Wall Structures (MRWS) have been developed in recent years and has been increasingly used in China. However, there is no effective way to quantitatively assess the damage of MRWS subjected to lateral load yet. In this paper, a macro-damage model of MRWS is developed based on the damage theory. First, two types of elements, including fiber rigid frame and bar elements, are introduced to take into account material damage, and local damage index (LDI) is proposed for each type of the elements. Unlike traditional frame element, the innovative fiber rigid frame element can be applied for both axial force and biaxial bending and provides more accurate results. Second, a global damage index (GDI) of structure is derived using the energy theory. Third, the model is implemented in an in-house damage analysis program named MRCS-D, which is further used to experimentally study a MRWS subjected to a combined lateral and vertical loading. There is a good correlation between the numerical and test results. It is shown that the GDI developed in this paper can be effectively used to quantitatively evaluate the damage state and describe the damage progress of the MRWS.