TTW Senior Structural Analyst/Engineers Mahdi Gharib and Amir Hassanieh, with Associate Director Michael King, recently presented a technical paper at the Australian Earthquake Engineering Society Conference. This conference was held in Newcastle to mark the 30th anniversary of the devastating 1989 Newcastle earthquake. Academics and practitioners came together to discuss seismology, risk management and the role of structural engineering in delivering building designs that are safe and robust.

The 2018 release of AS3600 included new requirements for boundary elements at the free edges of the walls and around openings, imposing new and onerous requirements on designers and builders. Our paper discussed the behaviour of low to moderately ductile reinforced concrete shear walls in response to an earthquake. We formulated a rational numerical assessment model to consider how various design parameters such as the wall’s aspect ratio, axial load, and reinforcement quantity interact with the overall earthquake demand. Our intention is to propose an integrated approach to the requirement of boundary elements in reinforced concrete structural walls.

Click on the below images to read the technical papers.

The work our team has done has the potential to result in savings to the reinforcement and less complexity during construction, while still demonstrating the required levels of robustness and performance in an earthquake. We are proud of our TTW Advance team contributing to discussions about seismic design in an Australian context.