Seismic Performance of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) Infill Wall Element with Vertical Slits for Strengthening of Non-Ductile Frame

Abstract

This paper provides experimental results on the seismic performance of four concrete infill wall elements with test variables of vertical slits and hooked end steel fiber reinforcing. 1/3-scale infill wall elements with height-to-length ratio of 0.55 were manufactured and tested up to failure. Four walls (CIW-N and-S, SCIW-N and-S) are similar to each other except presence of steel fiber reinforcement and vertical slits with the width of 40 mm. All specimens had the same rectangular cross-section of 1,100 mm x 50 mm, with wall panel height of 600 mm. The experimental results showed that concrete infill wall element with vertical slits exhibited more stable hysteretic behavior than solid infill wall element. This phenomenon is remarkable for steel fiber reinforced concrete infill wall element. Inclusion of vertical slits on the normal concrete and steel fiber reinforced concrete infill wall element improve the ductility and energy dissipation capacity but decrease the load-carrying capacity and stiffness of infill walls.