Experimental research on resilient performances of Fe-based SMA-reinforced concrete shear walls

Abstract

Earthquake-resilient structural system is a new kind of seismic vibration control structure, which has the characteristics of rapid recovery or with only a small amount of repair after earthquake. Using superelasticity of shape memory alloys (SMAs) can effectively increase the resilient performance of reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall structures, which have a wide application prospect in the seismic field of civil engineering. A pseudo static test of six Fe-based SMA-reinforced concrete shear walls is performed in the paper, aiming at investigating the influences of different SMA reinforcement ratio and steel stirrup ratio on their resilient performances and seismic capacities. By using the concept of the resilience-force-ratio at balance positions of the shear walls, resilient performances (e. g., deformation recoverability) of shear walls can be well represented. The experimental numerical results show that the resilient performances of SMA-RC shear walls can increase 21.7% compared with the ordinary steel reinforced ones, and the resilient performances of SMA-RC shear walls can be effectively improved by placing SMA reinforcements with an appropriate ratio. The steel stirrup ratio and SMA reinforcement ratio in the edge member have a great influence on the resilient performances of the shear wall structures.