Shake Table Testing of Single Rocking Wall_3 (SRW3) @ UNR

One of the essential considerations in seismic design of structures is to provide life safety. While the focus on life safety is to protect the buildings’ occupants, substantial economic losses ensue when an earthquake causes structural and nonstructural damage and permanent deformations. Beginning with the PREcast Seismic Structural Systems (PRESSS) program, one of the concepts that have been studied by several researchers is the use of seismic resilient systems to improve the earthquake performance of buildings beyond life safety, by mitigating structural damage. Rocking precast concrete wall is one of the practical examples originated from this concept. These walls designed with unbonded post-tensioning as primary reinforcement, which helps the system to self-center while minimizing structural damage during major seismic events. Main source of energy dissipation in Single Rocking Walls (SRW) generated from impact of the rocking body on the footing. However, in order to come up with supplemental damping for such systems, a PreWEC concept previously established. PreWEC systems are basically single rocking walls connected to side/ end steel columns using special energy dissipating oval “O” shaped mild steel connectors. These external dampers are welded to steel columns from one side and to wall steel embedment plates from the other side. While subjected to lateral loads, special, replaceable connectors placed between the wall and columns experience relative vertical displacements due to the gap opening at the base of the wall system. This results in connectors enduring large inelastic deformations and providing the necessary energy dissipation for the system.
Single Rocking Wall-3 (SRW3) consists of a concrete precast wall connected to a footing block with (6) 0.6" diameter PT strands.