Seismic performance of precast steel fiber reinforced lightweight aggregate concrete shear walls assembled with a socket horizontal joint

Abstract

In the context of constructing a precast shear wall structure, the connection of precast units plays a crucial role in ensuring structural safety and facilitating efficient construction, while the use of conventional concrete for heavy precast units leads to low lifting efficiency. It promotes the study of this paper, which proposed a novel type of socket horizontal joint for precast shear walls made of steel fiber reinforced lightweight aggregate concrete (SFRLAC). Three specimens were tested using the low-cyclic loading test: two reinforced SFRLAC shear walls assembled with a socket horizontal joint and a cast-in-place reinforced SFRLAC shear wall as a reference. The failure patterns and process of the shear walls were observed, while the load-displacement curves were obtained. Additionally, finite element (FE) numerical models were built to conduct parametric analysis on different influencing factors. The bearing capacity, energy dissipation capability, deformation ability, and stiffness degradation of the shear walls were studied. Results indicate that when the precast shear walls failed in bending-shear, the socket horizontal joint remained intact. The three shear walls exhibited fewer differences in seismic behaviors with relatively full hysteretic curves. The seismic mechanisms of the shear walls assembled with a socket horizontal joint are elucidated by analyzing the numerical distribution of stress in both SFRLAC and steel bars at different stress levels. Meanwhile, the study assesses the mechanical properties of precast shear walls by analyzing the impact of the shear to span ratio and the axial compression ratio.