Cyclic tensile testing of a three-way panel connection for pre-cast wall-slab-wall structures

To characterise the behaviour/response of three-way wall-to-wall connections found in pre-cast wall-slab-wall structures that abound in the Netherlands, panel stripe specimens were assembled – to mimic the connections between contiguous panels and a transverse/shear wall – and tested, under monotonic-tensile loading and in cyclic-asymmetric fashion, showing that this type of panel joints exhibits flexural failure of their steel connectors (as emerged also from the testing of full-scale mock-up buildings). The testing campaign was performed at EUCENTRE laboratory in 2017. These experimental testing activities, involving also the pseudostatic cyclic and shake-table testing of full-scale building prototypes meant to combine several common characteristics of multi-unit reinforced concrete terraced houses, were undertaken within the framework of the research programme for hazard and risk of induced seismicity in Groningen sponsored by the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV (NAM).