Influence of the axial load ratio on the mechanical behaviour of prefabricated concrete shear walls with Mortise–Tenon joints

Abstract

Prefabricated concrete shear walls with mortise–tenon joints (MTJ shear walls), as innovative fully prefabricated concrete shear wall structures without extended reinforcements, can meet the development needs of the current construction industry in China. One cast-in-place concrete shear wall and four MTJ shear walls with different axial load ratios (ALRs) were tested by performing pseudostatic tests. The mechanical behaviour of the MTJ shear walls and the influence of the ALR were studied. The test results show that the construction of the mortise–tenon joint in the MTJ shear walls was reasonable and that the connection was reliable. The failure process of the MTJ shear walls was different from that of the cast-in-place concrete shear wall. Vertical cracks formed along the bottom of the transverse grooves, which weakened the integrity of the MTJ shear wall and contributed to improving the deformability. The damage to the MTJ shear walls was mainly concentrated around the mortise–tenon joints, resulting in a reduction in the concrete crushing area at the root of the cast-in-place concrete boundary elements (CBEs) on both sides of the shear wall. With an increase in the ALR, the yield load and peak load of the MTJ shear wall gradually increased, but the displacement ductility coefficient decreased. However, when the test ALR was 0.30, the displacement ductility coefficient of the corresponding MTJ shear wall still reached 3.73, exhibiting good deformability. Reasonable numerical analysis models were established with ABAQUS to systematically analyse the influence of the ALR on the mechanical behaviour of MTJ shear walls. The ALR limit value of the MTJ shear wall was recommended to be 0.45.