Seismic Behavior of RC Low-Rise Shear Wall with Vertical Mild Steel-Lead Energy Dissipation Strips

Abstract

A RC shear wall with vertical mild steel-lead energy dissipation strips was proposed as an improvement in seismic behavior over existing shear wall designs. In order to test and ascertain the projected increase in performance, five low-rise shear wall specimens: one normal RC shear wall, one RC shear wall with slits, two shear walls with vertical X style mild steel energy dissipation strips under different design parameters, and one shear wall with vertical X style mild steel-lead energy dissipation strips were tested under cyclic loading. Based on the experiment, the damage characteristics, hysteresis characteristics, load-carrying capacity, stiffness, ductility, and energy dissipation of the specimens were comparatively analyzed. Results show that the ductility and energy dissipation of the RC low-rise shear wall with vertical X style mild steel energy dissipation strips and the one with X style mild steel-lead energy dissipation strips offer a significant improvement in seismic performance over accepted designs. In addition, the failure behavior of the low-rise shear wall tended towards bending failure rather than shear failure.