Low-rise RC street houses are very common building type in Taiwan. Since, they have open space policy for pedestrian way, many building suffer discontinuity in the structure, which is vulnerable to first soft story and weak story. Based on the observations made after several major earthquakes occurred in Taiwan, street houses have been found most seriously damaged among all building types. This proved that current design method should be evaluated again.
In this research, contribution from RC wall behavior, which make the structure become dual system, to the structure is analyzed. According to experimental result, RC wall has unique behavior for neutral axis shifting to compression side. This kind of behavior makes boundary column work differ from ordinary column. A deep analysis is conducted to account the effect of structure wall to the design practice.
To solve soft story and weak story problem, five design solutions are proposed. Design solution is designed by adding stiffness to the structure. Every design solution have its weakness and strength. However, one of the design solutions is proved effectively against soft story problem. The method is transforming dual structure type building into pure frame structure type, which also known as slitted wall. All of the design solution is designed based on force based design and use pushover analysis for verification.

Low-rise RC street houses are very common building type in Taiwan. Since, they have open space policy for pedestrian way, many building suffer discontinuity in the structure, which is vulnerable to first soft story and weak story. Based on the observations made after several major earthquakes occurred in Taiwan, street houses have been found most seriously damaged among all building types. This proved that current design method should be evaluated again.
In this research, contribution from RC wall behavior, which make the structure become dual system, to the structure is analyzed. According to experimental result, RC wall has unique behavior for neutral axis shifting to compression side. This kind of behavior makes boundary column work differ from ordinary column. A deep analysis is conducted to account the effect of structure wall to the design practice.
To solve soft story and weak story problem, five design solutions are proposed. Design solution is designed by adding stiffness to the structure. Every design solution have its weakness and strength. However, one of the design solutions is proved effectively against soft story problem. The method is transforming dual structure type building into pure frame structure type, which also known as slitted wall. All of the design solution is designed based on force based design and use pushover analysis for verification.

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………… i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………………………… ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………… iii
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………… 1
1.1.BACKGROUND………………………………………………………… 1
1.2.STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS…………………………………………. 2
1.3.OBJECTIVE…………………………………………………………….. 3
1.4.SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH…………………………………………... 3
1.5.OUTLINE……………………………………………………………….. 4
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW….………………………………………… 5
2.1.BUILDING PERFROMANCE IN TAIWAN EARTHQUAKE………… 5
2.2.BUILDING MECHANISM…..…………………………………………. 6
2.3.CONSTITUTIVE LAWS.……………………………………………….. 17
2.4.SHEAR WALL MODELING.…………………………………………... 25
2.5.THREE VERTICAL LINE ELEMENT MODEL……...……………….. 30
2.6.RC WALL STIFFNESS…………………………………………………. 36
2.7.TEASPA…...…………………………………………………………….. 47
2.8.PUSHOVER ANALYSIS…...…………………………………………... 59
2.9.ETABS PLASTIC HINGE PROPERTIES..…………………………….. 60
CHAPTER 3 ANALYTICAL MODEL……..……………………………………… 62
3.1.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY…...…………………………………… 62
3.2.ETABS DESIGN……………...…………………………………………. 63
3.3.EVALUATION….……………………………………………………….. 73
3.4.WALL WITH OPENING ANALYSIS…...……………………………... 78
3.5.NON LINEAR ANALYSIS.…………………………………………….. 89
CHAPTER 4 CASE STUDY….……………………………………………………. 100
4.1.BUILDING DATA…………………………………………….………… 100
4.2.STRUCTURAL MODELING..…………………………………………. 109
4.3.ANALYSIS……………..……………………………………………….. 117
4.4.DESIGN SOLUTION……….…………………………………………... 130
4.5.DESIGN TREATMENT………………………...……...……………….. 135
4.6.PUSHOVER ANALYSIS AND RESULT………………………………. 142
4.7.COLLAPSE PGA….…………………………………………………….. 154
4.8.DISCUSSION…………..…...…………………………………………...161
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH……………………… 172
5.1.SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION……………………………………... 172
5.2.SUGGESTION………………………….....…………………………….. 176
REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………… 177
APPENDIX A…………………………………………………………………….. 181
APPENDIX B…………………………………………………………………….. 205
APPENDIX C………………..…………………………………………………….. 210

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