Seismic behavior of RC building by considering a model for shear wall-floor slab connections

Connections are the most important regions in a structural system especially for buildings in seismic zones. In R.C. structures due to large dimensions of members and lack of cognition of the stress distribution in a connection, reaching a comprehensive understanding of the connection behaviors becomes more complicated. The shear wall-to-floor slab connections in lateral load resisting systems have a potential weakness in transferring loads from slabs to shear walls which might change the path of load transformation to shear walls. This paper tries to investigate the effects of seismic load combinations on the behavior of slabs at their connection zones with the shear walls. These connection zones naturally are the most critical regions of the slabs in RC buildings. The investigation carried on in a simulated environment by considering three different structures with different shear wall layout. The final results of our study reveal that layout of shear walls in a building significantly affects the magnification of forces developed at the shear wall-floor slab connections.