Performance of Screen Grid Insulating Concrete Form Walls under Combined In-Plane Vertical and Lateral Loads

Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF) walls generally comprise two layers of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), steel reinforcement is placed in the center between the two layers and concrete is poured to fill the gap between those two layers. ICF's have many advantages over traditional methods of wall construction such as reduced construction time, noise reduction, strength enhancement, energy efficiency, and compatibility with any inside or outside surface finish. The focus of this study is the Screen Grid ICF wall system consisting of a number of beams and columns forming a concrete mesh. The performance of ICF wall systems under lateral loads simulating seismic effect is experimentally evaluated in this paper. This work addresses the effect of the different design parameters on the wall behavior under seismic simulated loads. This includes different steel reinforcement ratio, various reinforcement distribution, wall aspect ratios, different openings sizes for windows and doors, as well as different spacing of the grid elements of the screen grid wall. Ten full scale wall specimens were tested where the effects of the various parameters on wall behavior in terms of lateral load capacity, lateral displacement, and modes of failure are presented. The test results are stored to be used for further analysis and calibration of numerical models developed for this study. © (2011) Trans Tech Publications.