Experimental investigation of unbonded reinforced concrete PT shear wall under lateral loading: A state-of-the-art review

Abstract

Although conventional reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls are prevalent in mid-rise to high-rise framed buildings located in moderate to high seismic regions around the world, these have the problem of reusability because of permanent deformation and damage induced in the wall during an earthquake. Subsequently, the idea of post-tensioned (PT) shear walls has been emanated in 1990s. These walls possess an excellent rocking behavior over the base during an earthquake shaking and demonstrate self-centering capability without causing significant damage, making them reusable after a seismic event. However, they lack good energy dissipation capacity, which is generally overcome by fitting energy dissipators internally or externally. Different configurations of PT shear walls, such as single rocking, multi-panel, jointed, hybrid, and precast walls with end columns (PreWEC), have been developed over the years through various experimental studies. This paper provides a detailed review of the experimental investigation of PT shear walls undertaken in the past. Also, it discusses different types of energy dissipators used in the past to improve the energy dissipation capability of PT shear walls. A discussion is made on the interaction between PT tendons and surrounding concrete, wall-foundation and panel-to-panel, and PT shear walls with surrounding structural elements. Finally, the paper presents the summary and concluding remarks, and addresses future suggestions in the field of PT shear walls.