Comparison of concrete volumes in moment, shear wall and X-braced RC frames for different wind speeds

Designing a reinforced concrete structure to behave as a braced system is one of the most widely used structural systems in engineering. A framed structure mainly relies on bending stiffness and flexural capacity of beam and column to provide lateral stiffness and horizontal capacity. The ability to resist lateral force is relatively weak, so its application is highly limited. Bracing members are widely used in steel frame structures but not so common in RC frames. Reports of the use of steel-bracing in Reinforced Concrete structures can be found in the recent literature, but very little is known as to the level of effectiveness of this strengthening system in Reinforced Concrete structures. Open moment resisting frames and shear wall frames are widely used structural systems in reinforced concrete buildings to resist wind and earthquake forces. This study used SAP 2000, structural analysis program software to compare the concrete volume to maintain braced behavior of frames with shear walls and frames with X-bracing. Four different wind pressure zones in the United States of America have been considered on a low rise structure. These lateral forces have been used to check the elastic buckling and the column stiffness to maintain a braced reinforced concrete frame condition and to determine which system is more economical. The results of the linear analysis methods recommended by ACI 318 were compared to the results using the Non-linear analysis approach in SAP 2000 v.15.