Experimental study and associated numerical simulation of horizontally connected precast shear wall assembly

Abstract

This paper is concerned about precast reinforced concrete shear walls and the methods of assembling shear wall panels to form a reliable load transfer system. An assembling method is proposed using dry connection through a horizontal steel connector (H-connector) and high-strength bolts. To investigate the effectiveness and the design of such a connection method, three wall-connector assembly specimens with different connection details have been constructed and tested under monotonic loading while subjected to a constant vertical compression. The test results provided comprehensive data regarding the progressive transition of the load transfer mechanisms and showed that the performance of the shear wall assembly was generally satisfactory in terms of ensuring the full development of the shear wall strength and ductility. To assist in the interpretation of the experimental results and enable further parametric analysis, a detailed finite element model has been developed with incorporation of the main load transfer mechanisms, in addition to the description of the nonlinear behavior of the shear wall. The finite element model has been verified to represent well the actual behavior of the shear wall assembly, and it has provided further insight into the occurrence of slippage at the connection, the development of the bearing resistance of the bolts and the compression load transfer through contact in the later stage of the response.

Behavior of steel–concrete composite bolted connector in precast reinforced concrete shear wall

“…In the test, the relative position of bolts to their individual host holes in the actual specimens is understandably random. When slipping started, individual bolts would have come into contact with the bolt holes in a progressive manner (Sun et al, 2016). Therefore, data modification was performed before usage: the original curves before the end of slippage stage were removed to the left side of the original point.…”

“…The advantages of bolted connection include convenient construction, better-quality control, as well as less labor cost. A series of experimental and theoretical studies were performed on the application of using the suitable steel structure connection method to novel structure systems, such as composite beam (Ataei et al, 2016), steel-concrete composite bridge (Suwaed and Karavasilis, 2017), and precast wall (Guo et al, 2019;Sun et al, 2016). Conventional ''wet'' methods are widely used in connecting adjacent precast shear wall panels, for instance, connecting reinforcing bars with lap splices and cast-in-situ concrete or with mechanical couplers and fresh cementitious grout (Aaleti et al, 2013).…”

Lateral load behaviour of a rectangular precast shear wall involving vertical bolted connections

“…The pretension in the bolt is applied using the 'bolt load' function. The model methods of the bolted connection and related parameters have already been calibrated by Sun et al (2016).…”

“…In order to promote the advances in dry connections, an innovative precast RC shear wall system using bolted steel connections has been under development by the authors and their co-workers (Sun et al, 2015(Sun et al, , 2016. A series of experimental and theoretical studies have been conducted on the horizontal and vertical connections in this system.…”

Experimental study on shear behavior of two‐way hollow core precast panel shear wall with vertical connection

“…Therefore, multiple TWHCPP units need to be connected in horizontal and vertical directions, and the performance of the TWHCPP shear wall with connections needs to be investigated. The seismic performance of precast shear walls with horizontal connections has been studied extensively, [14,25,26] while related research on the performance of precast shear walls with vertical connections is limited. Therefore, this study primarily focuses on investigating the performance of TWHCPP shear walls with vertical connections.…”