Research on Seismic Performance of an Innovative Upper-Lower Half-Story Precast Shear Wall

An innovative precast connection (the precast connection installed in the middle of the shear wall) was proposed for the shear wall. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed precast connection, two cast-in-situ shear walls (RCW1 and RCW2) and three precast shear walls (PCW1, PCW2, and PCW3) were manufactured and investigated. The construction joints were inserted in the bottom and the middle for RCW1 and RCW2; and the structural glue horizontal connection, structural glue cogged connection, and cast-in-situ plug grouting connection were utilized for PCW1, PCW2, and PCW3, respectively. The failure mode, loading capacity, ductility, stiffness degradation, and energy dissipation of specimens were analyzed under the horizontal low-frequency cycled loading. Simultaneously, a numerical simulation was carried out on the ABAQUS software, and simulation results were consistent with experimental results. The result showed that the moment-shear failure occurred in all the specimens except PCW1; the bottoms of PCW2 and PCW3 were still vulnerable regions. The bearing capacity and the ductility of RCW2 were improved to different degrees by installing the construction joint in the middle of the shear wall. Specifically, the structural glue cogged connection and the cast-in-situ plug grouting connection have no obvious effect on the reduction of bearing capacity but can improve the ductility of the specimen; the stiffness degradation and energy dissipation of RCW1, RCW2, PCW2, and PCW3 were basically the same