Experimental and numerical investigation on the seismic performance of RC squat shear walls with single post-opening reinforced by steel plates

Abstract

The pseudo-static tests of one RC squat shear wall without opening and the other three RC squat shear walls with different arrangements (center, bottom, and top) of a single post-opening, reinforced by bonding steel plates, were carried out to simulate the defects caused by the post-opening at different locations and investigate the effect of post-opening location on the seismic performance of reinforced squat shear walls. The corresponding models of the tested specimens and also the other three models of the RC shear walls with the same opening and without any reinforcement were analyzed with Abaqus software. Results indicated that the shear wall without opening and the reinforced shear walls with a single post-opening show flexural shear failure. The relative difference between the bearing capacity of the three reinforced specimens and the reference specimen is not more than 6%. The average displacement ductility coefficients of reinforced shear walls with the central and bottom openings were reduced by 9.62%, while that of reinforced shear walls with the top opening was increased by 23.01%. FEA further reveals that the steel plate significantly reduces the uneven distribution of the reinforcement strain around the opening for shear walls with different post-opening locations.