Size Effects in Reinforced Concrete Flanged Shear Walls

The work presented in this paper investigates the causes of size effects in structural-concrete members. it isbased on the use of a finite-element model found to yield realistic predictions of structural-concrete behavior in allcases investigated to date. in fact. the previous use of this model in investigations ofsize effects in reinforced-concretebeams indicated that such effects reflect the dependence of load-carrying capacity on small unintended eccentricitiesof the applied load and/or load-induced anisotropy. rather than. as widely considered, on fracture-mechanicscharacteristics. the present work extends the scope of the above investigation so as to include the case of reinforcedconcrete flanged shear walls. the behavior of which is already established experimentally. it is found that. unlike theflanged shear walls with a height-to-length ratio larger than 2. the shear walls investigated in the present work. incontrast with the interpretation given to recently published experimental findings. are size-effect independent.