Experimental study of insulated sandwich concrete wall connections under cyclic loading

Abstract

An innovative connections of insulation sandwich concrete panels (ISCPs) is presented in this study. The connection uses reinforced concrete (RC) column connecting wall panels, and steel rectangular tube is used as the boundary element at the free end of the web. To evaluate the hysteretic property of the connection and the effectiveness of the boundary element, the cyclic loading test is performed with four full-scale specimens including two T-shaped and two L-shaped specimens. The failure mode, bearing capacity, ductility, degradation property and energy dissipation capacity are investigated. The results show that the failure of the connection is due to the cracks and local crushing in the web. The structural integrity remains intact during the test, and there is no separation between RC column and wall panel. The specimens with boundary elements have better hysteresis performance, better ductility, more stable stiffness degradation and better energy dissipation capacity. For T-shaped and L-shaped ISCPs wall connections, steel rectangular tube do not significantly increase their bearing capacity, but do substantially increase their ductility.