Seismic performance of precast concrete double skin shear walls with different vertical connection types

Abstract

In this study, four full-scale precast concrete double skin shear walls (PCDSSWs) with different vertical connections (i.e., loop connection and spiral-confined lap connection) and test axial compression ratios (0.09 and 0.23) were designed as emulative shear walls. Low reversed cyclic loading tests were conducted on the PCDSSWs to investigate their seismic performance by comparing with two cast-in-place (CIP) control specimens. The test results revealed that all the shear wall specimens failed in flexural-shear failure mode, and the hysteretic responses and stiffness degradation characteristics of the PCDSSWs were found to be comparable to those of the CIP control specimens. The loading capacity of the PCDSSWs was a little lower (about 1 ~ 11%) than that of the CIP control specimens. The ductility of the PCDSSWs with loop connection was about 10% lower and 17% higher than that of the CIP control specimens under the low and high axial compression ratio, respectively. While, the ductility of the PCDSSWs with spiral-confined lap connection was obviously higher than that of the CIP control specimens (about 13 and 52% higher for the specimens under the low and high axial compression ratio, respectively). At last, a degraded tri-linear restoring force model was developed for PCDSSWs with different vertical connection types.