Abstract
A new form of construction utilizing structural steel as the boundary elements in ductile flexural concrete walls is proposed to solve the bar congestion problems in such a heavily reinforced region, while maintaining the ductility and energy absorption capacity comparable to their traditional form. Two wall specimens containing rectangular hollow structural sections (HSS) and channels at their ends respectively, and one companion standard reinforced concrete wall specimen with concentrated end reinforcement were constructed and tested under reversed cyclic loading to evaluate the construction process as well as the structural performance. Initially, all three specimens were chosen and detailed with some caution to have approximately the same flexural capacity without change of the original shape and dimension of a rectangular cross section correction. Analysis and comparison of test results indicated that the reversed cyclic responses of three walls showed similar hysteretic properties, but in those with steel boundaries, local buckling of the corresponding steel webs and flanges following significant yielding was a dominant factor to determine the hysteretic response. The monotonic and cyclic responses predicted based on a sectional approach was also presented and found to be in good agreement with measured results. Design recommendations considering local instability of the structural steel elements and the interaction between steel chords and a concrete web member in such a composite wall are presented.