Isolated RC wall subjected to biaxial bending moment and axial force

A numerical study using nonlinear finite element analysis is performed to investigate the behavior of isolated reinforced concrete walls subjected to combined axial force and in-plane and out-of-plane bending moments. For a nonlinear finite element analysis, a computer program addressing material and geometric nonlinearities was developed. Through numerical studies, the internal force distribution in the cross-section is idealized, and then a new design method, different from the existing methods based on the plane section hypothesis was developed. According to the proposed method, variations in the interaction curve of the in-plane bending moment and axial force depends on the range of the permissible axial force per unit length, that is determined by a given amount of out-of-plane bending moment. As the out-of-plane bending moment increases, the interaction curve shrinks, indicating a decrease in the ultimate strength. The proposed method is then compared with an existing method, using the plane section hypothesis. Compared with the proposed method, the existing method overestimates the ultimate strength for the walls subjected to low out-of-plane bending moments, while it underestimates the ultimate strength for walls subject to high out-of-plane bending moments. The proposed method can address the out-of-plane local behavior of the individual wall segments that may govern the ultimate strength of the entire wall.