Experimental testing of seven RC shear walls under quasi-static cyclic loading

In this project, an experimental investigation is conducted to determine the behavior of RC shear walls found in old and existing buildings that do not comply with the design rules in modern earthquake standards. Many studies indicated that most of the damaged buildings after earthquake events were built with low concrete quality and smooth bars. Seven full-scale reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall samples are built and prepared within the scope of this project. The behavior of the shear walls is determined experimentally by displacement-lateral load relationship under lateral cyclic loading. The study used measurable parameters to investigate the behavior of the test specimens in terms of lateral force capacity, rigidity, ductility, dissipated energy, and displacement component's contribution to the total lateral response of the walls. As a result, it is proven in this work that these specimens are governed by the bar slip phenomena, which demonstrated more than 80% contribution to the total lateral displacement capacity. In contrast, the reference shear wall exhibited a notable flexural behavior and plastic hinge formation. Additionally, the shear walls built with smooth reinforcement bars lost about 44% of their theoretical potential flexural capacity due to the observed bar slip failure.