Reversed Cyclic Loading Test on Emulative Hybrid Precast Concrete Shear Walls under Different Vertical Loads

An experiment was carried out to investigate the seismic performance of hybrid precast concrete shear walls, which aimed to emulate the monolithic RC wall by incorporating unbonded post-tensioned high-strength strands and vertically connected reinforcing bars by grouting across the horizontal joint for lateral resistance. The unbonded tendons provided the pre-compression and the recentering force. The grouted reinforcing bars were used to provide the bending strength, reduce the gap opening size, and eliminate the horizontal slippage along the joint. Three full-scale emulative hybrid wall specimens under different vertical loads and one monolithic RC wall specimen for reference were subjected to reversed cyclic loading. The test results showed that, the emulative hybrid specimens, with vertical load less than or equal to that of the monolithic specimen, exhibited good lateral performance and the seismic properties, including strength, stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation, were comparable to that of the monolithic specimen. As the vertical load increased, the strength and stiffness were enhanced, however, the energy absorbing capacity was obviously decreased.