Abstract
A folded plate is well known as a structure for a long span roof. This structure is also used as a wall very often. When such the folded walls are subjected to lateral forces, their behavior will be considerably different from the behavior of usual plane walls. So experiments were performed to investigate the behavior of the reinforced concrete folded walls subjected to lateral forces. This paper presents the results of these experiments. An angle of the folded wall was adopted as a variable of the tests. For the purpose of comparison, test specimens included a usual plane wall. All specimens were 4 cm thick, 60 cm height, and reinforced orthogonally with D3 deformed bars. Each specimen was subjected to reversed cyclic lateral loading. Test results indicate that larger angle reduce the stiffness and the load capacity of the reinforced concrete folded walls. These trends are caused by the slip toward out of plane along the cracks and the folding deformation equivalent to Brazier effect in tube structures.
