Seismic behaviour and nonlinear modeling of reinforced concrete flat slab-column connections

The contemporary structural design practice of tall buildings typically incorporates a lateral force resisting system, along with a gravity system that often includes reinforced concrete flat slabs. A major challenge with the design of this system is ensuring adequate strength and deformation capacities of the flat slab-column connections, especially when the structure is prone to strong seismic excitations. When a flat slab-column connection is subjected to a combination of gravity and lateral loads, failure may occur in multiple modes. Comprehensive literature reviews of the experimental studies and the analytical models related to reinforced concrete flat slabs, and flat slab-column connections are presented in Chapters 2 and 3, respectively. The existing nonlinear models that are currently available in literature were developed as assessment tools for old flat-plate structures. Thus, they are not capable of capturing the hysteretic behaviour of ductile flat slab-column connections with shear reinforcement. In Chapter 4, a new nonlinear model for flat slab-column connections is proposed. Utilizing the proposed model allows detecting potential failures due to all the possible modes of failure. The model was verified and calibrated using data from actual experimental studies. Chapter 5 investigates the effects of flat slabs on the global seismic response of typical high-rise concrete shear wall buildings. Two analytical case studies were conducted using a prototype building designed in Vancouver, Canada. The results from nonlinear dynamic analyses confirmed that including flat slabs in the analysis models of tall buildings is important to obtain accurate estimates of the structural responses and seismic demands. A concise summary of the research outcomes is presented in Chapter 6.Applied Science, Faculty ofCivil Engineering, Department ofGraduat