Out-of-plane stability of thin RC walls

Walls with a single layer of reinforcement have been widely used in the past (Europe, US) and are still used in some countries where material costs constitute a significant amount of the construction costs (e.g. Colombia). The single layer of reinforcement makes them particularly prone to develop out-of-plane failure modes. These was confirmed by uni- and bi-directional EPFL tests on such walls, which recorded for the first time the entire out-of-plane displacement field. Existing mechanical models addressed the response of walls with two layers of reinforcement. One objective of Angelica Rosso's PhD thesis is to extend existing out-of-plane stability criteria for walls with two layers of reinforcements to walls with a single layers of reinforcement. To validate these models, she is currently performing uniaxial tension - compression tests on boundary elements.