Prefabricated structures have taken on an increasingly important role in civil construction. Their advantages compared to traditional construction include better quality control, lower energy consumption and CO2 emissions, a high potential for component recycling, and less need for
specialized on-site labour.
Prefabricated elements are connected in-situ, and the connection systems differ between dry and wet joints, the former using bolts and the latter using cast-in-place concrete, resulting in a monolithic structure.
The main objective of this dissertation is to evaluate the influence of openings on the structural capacity of simple solid prefabricated reinforced concrete walls, considering both the Ultimate Limit State (ULS) and the Serviceability Limit State (SLS). Two wall geometrics, both dry and wet joints, and several opening configurations (type and position) were studied, totalling 23 different analyses. The structural strength of the various walls under ULS was assessed through the analysis of stresses in steel and concrete, allowing the identification of critical points in the wall when subjected to a vertical axial load. Similarly, the behaviour of the wall under service conditions (SLS) was analysed by determining the load that causes a crack width of 0.3 mm. In addition tothe crack width analysis, the areas of the wall most prone to cracking were also identified.
The parametric study was carried out using IDEA StatiCa Detail software, following Eurocode standards and recommendations from the International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib).
The analysed wall corresponds to a fictitious case of a four-story building with prefabricated reinforced concrete walls on the ground floor, subjected to vertical loads from the upper floors. To classify the walls as structural or non-structural, two criteria were considered: one based on 40% of the failure load of a reference wall without openings, and another based on the structural performance required according to the loads derived from the ULS and SLS combinations. It was concluded that, according to the first criterion, about 60% of the walls can be considered structural, whereas according to the second criterion, approximately 74% qualify as structural. It was also found that not only the size of the openings affects the structural performance of the wall, the geometry and position of the openings also play a very important role, as they significantly alter the stress path and, consequently, the overall behaviour of the wall.