低矮鋼筋混凝土連棟街屋(沿街店鋪式住宅)為國內相當普遍的建築形式，此種建築沿街道方向之屋前、屋後牆體由於通道、通風與採光之需求，常存在相當面積之開口，導致牆體與相連梁柱構架之耐震行為異於典型含牆構架。台灣位於歐亞大陸板塊與太平洋板塊交界處，各式地震災害的發生實為居民無法逃避的宿命，因此面對地震如何做好防範準備以保護生命財產安全乃居住在此的人民所必須共同面對的一大課題。自921集集大地震以降，眾多學者與專家合工程實務界與政府相關單位，皆對地震工程相關領域更加重視，紀錄、研究、分析等對921震害之研究亦不計其數，期以從中記取並學習大自然所給予的寶貴工程經驗。
研究中對課題此種結構特性建築之屋後外牆進行包含文獻之收集、國內相關建築法規之討論，並以有限元素軟體分析典型之街屋屋後外牆得到一顯著之觀察結果，並依此規劃實尺寸試驗，從實驗中觀察發現，牆體的破壞模式大致相同，牆體多為斜向剪力裂縫，牆體混凝土之破壞多集中於同為最小斷面之高程範圍內，完整牆塊如預期地提供、並且主控了側向強度的大小，主受剪區塊在被正負裂縫貫穿後影響了其中各別混凝土塊的承壓能力，牆體呈現出脆性破壞，並且因牆體採用的是傳統配筋方式，僅配置溫度與乾縮控制鋼筋，混凝土所受之圍束不足，當位於主要受剪區域中之混凝土塊破壞之後，因圍束不足之故破壞後之混凝土會快速的產生剝落，造成強度過早開始衰減且快速衰減。

The 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan caused numerous building damage and collapse. A large percentage of damaged and collapsed buildings are low-rise reinforced concrete buildings with pedestrian corridors and open fronts on the ground floors, referred to as street houses herein. This type of building (street houses) typically was damaged along the direction of the street due to the much less volume of walls along this direction than the direction perpendicular to the street. Since street houses are very common in Taiwan, there is an urgent need for seismic evaluation and retrofit of existing street houses and for improved design method for new street houses. Since structural walls possess significant seismic capacity, appropriate seismic evaluation and design of street houses requires information on the seismic behavior of walls in street houses perpendicular to the street direction. Typically, there are two types of walls along this direction. One is the wall besides the stairs and the other one is the wall in the back exterior side of the house. The seismic behavior of stairs wall has been studied previously in a 2010 ABRI research project. This research will examine the seismic behavior of the backside exterior wall.
The backside exterior wall of street houses usually contains openings for doorway, kitchen ventilation and toilet windows in the first floor. In the second floor, the exterior wall typically has a window opening. The seismic evaluation and design for the backside exterior wall with typical openings in Taiwan is still not clear. Moreover, the seismic performance of this type of wall with reinforcement detailing typical in Taiwan is questionable.
The objective of this research is to propose seismic evaluation and design method for backside exterior walls with typical opening pattern of street houses in Taiwan. Two large-scale two-story structural wall systems will be designed and constructed. One wall system will be equipped with conventional reinforcement detailing typical in Taiwan. The other one will be designed with proposed reinforcement detailing to improve the seismic performance. Lateral cyclic loading will be applied to investigate the seismic behavior of the walls. Based on the observed behavior, analytical models including strength and ductility evaluation and the finite element model will be developed and verified. With the developed analytical models, seismic evaluation and design methods for backside exterior walls with typical openings for street houses will be proposed. Results of this research will improve the seismic evaluation and design of street houses, leading to a more economical seismic retrofit and a safer new design of such structures.

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