Experimental and numerical investigation on the influence of PC window beam on the seismic performance of PC shear wall structures

Abstract

Precast concrete (PC) window beams are usually prefabricated with PC shear walls and may affect the seismic performance of PC shear wall structures. To investigate the influence, two PC shear walls with different PC window beam depths were tested, and a refined FE numerical simulation method was proposed and validated. The experimental and numerical results indicate that double beam mechanism dominates the seismic performance of such specimens. The PC window beams can significantly improve the stiffness, load-bearing and energy dissipation capacities. To further investigate the influence at the structural level, seismic performance of a PC shear wall structure was evaluated. The analysis results indicated that the window beams can effectively reduce the inter-story drift ratio through the increase of stiffness and energy dissipation capacity of the structure, thus preventing the shear walls as well as beams from severe damage, and improve the seismic performance of structures. Such improvement of the seismic performance of PC shear wall structures becomes more obvious with the increase of the depth of PC window beams, which is consistent with the test results. The research outcome offers valuable experimental data, simulation method and useful reference for further investigation on seismic design of such shear wall structures.