Threshold drifts of structural performance levels in ductility-limited walls with ductile mesh

This paper presents the experimental results performed by SENCICO, based on cyclic loads that were applied to 03 walls of limited ductility brought to failure in laboratory tests. These results were evaluated and processed in order to analyse their performance under controlled lateral loading conditions, to obtain their hysteretic loops representing their stiffness degradation in 13 proposed phases. In turn, the enveloping capacity curves were determined for each specimen in order to obtain a representative curve for the samples. Subsequently, the representative curve is validated through a theoretical calibration with the help of the ETABS® software, adding the nonlinearity to the materials and the mathematical model, obtaining an analytical capacity curve very similar to the experimental one. In addition, a trilinear curve is proposed that fits accurately and represents very well the performance of walls with limited ductility in their elastic, post-cracking and post-creep performance conditions. Finally, the trilinear capacity curve is sectorized in its structural performance levels with their respective threshold drifts, guided by the guidelines proposed by SEAOC VISION 2000.