EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON DYNAMIC HYSTERETIC BEHAVIOR OF RC SHEAR WALLS UNDER DIFFERENT LOADING RATES

The hysteretic behavior of RC shear walls under dynamic loads is critical for the understanding of failure of RC structures under earthquake and/or strong winds loadings where the effect of load rate should be considered. In this paper, tests on two RC shear walls under different loading rates are conducted. The failure patterns, hysteretic behavior, skeleton curves, displacement ductility, strength and stiffness degradation and energy dissipation of the two specimens under different load rates are compared and analyzed. The results indicate that the load carrying capacity of the RC shear walls increases with the loading rates, but the displacement corresponding to the ultimate load has a little decrease. The displacement ductility, strength degradation, stiffness degradation and energy dissipation decreases with the increase of loading rates.