Determination of Optimal Reinforcement Layout for Shear Wall with Opening Via Strut-and-Tie Approaches

Determination of optimal steel reinforcement layout for shear wall with opening is an important topic in designing this structural member.Strut-and-Tie Method (STM) is one way to design such members, where steel reinforcement is arranged based on the selected model.In this study, a strategy was introduced to determine optimal Strut-and-Tie model by selecting a good volume fraction in continuum topology optimization problem.The elastic strain energy was selected as the objective function to achieve the optimal pattern, and the modified Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) with continuous penalty function was used to prevent local minimum solution. Finally, By using Nonlinear Finite Element and defining qualitative and quantitative conditions for optimal STM, the resulting models, obtained with topology optimization for three shear wall with various opening, were compared with previous models and models with manufacturing constraint.The results show that, topology optimization models have the best ultimate load to steel weight ratio and get the optimal steel reinforcement layout for shear wall with opening.