Experimental study of precast concrete walls with replaceable corner components

Abstract

To improve the seismic resiliency of precast concrete (PC) wall, a type of emulative PC wall with replaceable corner components (RCCs) was developed in this study. The damage of the PC wall was deliberately concentrated in the RCCs, which can be replaced after an earthquake. Four large-aspect-ratio specimens (including three PC walls with different tensile strength RCCs, and one monolithic cast-in-place reinforced concrete (RC) wall) were tested to investigate the seismic behavior of the PC wall, the replaceability of the RCCs, and comparability of the PC wall with the RC wall. Although flexural failure occurred for the three PC walls, the locations of damage were different. For PC walls with low and moderate tensile strength RCCs, the damage was successfully concentrated in RCCs, while for PC wall with high tensile strength RCCs, the damage was expanded from RCCs to the non-replaced part of the PC wall. When RCCs had approximately identical tensile strength to the boundary element of RC wall, the performance of the PC wall emulated that of the RC wall. The ultimate drift ratio of the PC walls ranged from 1.7% to 2.2% which is lower than that of 2.7% for the RC wall. The PC wall, before and after replacing RCCs, exhibited approximately identical lateral load, while slight lower initial stiffness. The vertical displacement profiles of wall bottom section were almost linear, and the yielding and peak strength of the PC walls could be reasonably estimated by assuming the wall bottom section remain plane after deformation.