Cyclic Response of Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls with Continuous Rectangular Spiral Stirrups

A new kind of composite shear wall, with continuous rectangular spiral stirrups inserted in the boundary element and the middle section, named spirally reinforced shear wall, was proposed. Two Concrete-filled Steel Tube (CFST) composite shear wall specimens and one RC shear wall specimen were tested as comparative testes. The layout and type of reinforcement were taken as major test variables. The test results indicated that the failure mode of the spirally reinforced wall was flexural failure, with crushing of toe concrete and losing of vertical load bearing capacity. Under the same steel consumption, the load-carrying capacity of the spirally reinforced shear wall specimens was larger than that of the CFST composite shear wall specimens. The spirally reinforced shear wall has well ability of energy dissipation, and showed better capacity of energy dissipation than the RC shear wall. In addition, FEM models were provided to estimate the bearing capacity and stiffness of those specimens. The evaluated peak loads agreed well with test results, with less than 10% discrepancy.