Behavior and Design of Distributed Belt Walls as Virtual Outriggers for Concrete High-Rise Buildings

A new lateral force-resisting structural system for concrete high-rise buildings, distributed belt wall system, is proposed. Unlike conventional belt structures, the belt walls infilling the space between perimeter columns are distributed separately along the overall building height. In this study, the force transfer mechanism and performance of the distributed belt walls, acting as virtual outriggers under lateral load, are investigated. For the reinforcement of the belt walls subjected to high shear demand, a reinforcing method using high-strength prestressing strands (i.e. PSC belt wall) is suggested, and the shear strength of the PSC belt walls is estimated based on the compression field theory. By performing nonlinear finite element analysis, the shear behavior of the PSC belt walls, including cracking and yield strengths, is investigated in detail. Based on these investigations, recommendations for the shear design of the belt walls reinforced by high-strength prestressing strands are given.