Flexure and Shear Deformation of GFRP-Reinforced Shear Walls

Experimental results of midrise RC shear walls under quasistatic cyclic loading were used to investigate the interaction of flexural and shear deformations. Four large-scale shear walls—one reinforced with steel bars and three totally reinforced with glass fiber–reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars—were tested to failure where the behavior was dominated by flexure. It was found that relying on the diagonal displacement transducers tended to overestimate shear deformations by 30 to 50%. To correct the shear deformations, the center of rotation of the tested shear walls was evaluated. Based on experimental results, the fundamental equation of flexural deformation obtained values of the center of rotation (α). Using the suggested values of α produced consistent results for the flexure and shear deformations. Decoupling the total deformation of the tested shear walls into flexural and shear deformations was discussed. Using elastic materials (GFRP bars) gave uniform distributions of shear strains along the shear region of the GFRP-reinforced shear walls ranging from 15 to 20% of the total deformation, resulting in less shear deformations than those experienced in the steel-reinforced shear wall; for this yielding of the steel bars intensified the shear strains at the yielding location, causing significant degradation in shear deformation ranging from 2 to 20% of total deformation.