Experiment and numerical study of a new bolted steel plate horizontal joints for precast concrete shear wall structures

Abstract

In a non-emulative precast shear wall structures, joints are the key to influence the overall mechanical performance under seismic actions. While wet joints are widely used in the precast reinforced concrete shear wall structure, they present problems such as collision of steel bars, inconsistency of the post-casting area and importantly, they cannot achieve the best potential of precast concrete structures. Hence, this paper proposes a new dry joint, which is a bolted C-shaped steel plate for the horizontal joint of precast shear walls. Four identical sub-assembly precast shear wall panels bolted with four distinct configurations of steel plates (plain, X-stiffeners, horizontal slots and vertical slots) were tested under reversed cyclic loading. It was discovered that the bolted steel plate with horizontal slots could improve the ductility and energy dissipation of the joint. Numerical models were calibrated by benchmarking with the experimental results. Through a systematic parametric study on the number and spacing of slots, thickness of steel plates and number of bolts, the results indicated that the number of bolts is the critical parameter that will affect initial stiffness, peak strength capacity and ductility of the proposed joint.