Racking Performance of Traditional and Non-Traditional Engineered Bamboo Shear Walls

Guadua Angustifolia Kunt (G.A.K.) is a bamboo specie that has been considered an alternative material for construction in some of the Latin-American countries. In Colombia, specifically in coffee region, G.A.K. has been used mainly for residential buildings, having bahareque (Split bamboo and mortar connected to a guadua frame) as the preferred structural system for this type of structures. This system has shown an adequate seismic behavior during earthquakes like the one in Armenia (1999), [1]. Nowadays, there is not a real understanding of the structural behavior of this kind of bamboo shear walls. For that reason, a study on the seismic performance of engineering bahareque shear walls and two kinds of non-conventional G.A.K. shear walls is done. Throughout this article, the preliminary results of this study are presented, based on monotonic tests only. So far, 13 tests have been run on the different types of shear walls. In addition, 6 static tests were performed on the connection of the shear walls to the foundation, to understand the capacity and the behavior of this type of joint. The results show that the structural behavior of engineering bahareque shear walls is both adequate and better than the one observed on the two kinds of non-conventional shear walls. In spite of that, some changes on the constructive details could improve the structural behavior of these two kinds of shear walls. As for the connection of the shear walls to the foundation, it is observable that the capacity of the joint is related to the resistance of cement mortar. Also two types of failure, identified on the study, affect directly the connection behavior.