Seismic Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls Subjected to High Axial Loading

This paper presents the results of an experimental study that investigated the failure mechanism and ductility of rectangular reinforced concrete shear walls subjected to high axial loading. Four slender wall models were built and tested to failure under the combined action of constant axial load and reversed cyclic lateral loading. The objective of this test was to investigate the effect of parameter variation of axial-load ratio and shear compression ratio on the behavior of reinforced concrete shear walls. All the specimens were designed based on the philosophy that lateral load capacity was controlled by flexure and, therefore, the undesirable premature shear failure during the experiment would be prevented. Axial-load ratio is found to have a significant effect on the cracking pattern, flexural strength, failure mode, and ductility of reinforced concrete shear walls.