Experimental study on behavior of anchored external shear wall panel connections

Strengthening of the structures with external shear walls recently has become an attractive alternative compared to conventional strengthening methods. These external shear walls can be erected either cast-in-place or by pre-casting. However, cast-in-place construction is difficult and time consuming especially in multistory buildings. On the other hand, a single precast panel is too heavy for transportation and assembly. These difficulties might be overcome by producing precast panels as multi-piece panels. However, in that case, behavior of connections between panels will be important as it could control the failure mode of the shear wall. For this reason, this study is aimed at testing the behavior of different types of precast panel connections. Within this study, one monolithic reference model and two precast panel models having anchored connection details were produced. The behavior of connections was tested under reversed-cyclic lateral loads. The results showed that ductility of the models with connections are significantly lower than monolithic specimen. Although, each panel has good RC detailing with proper confinement and concrete quality, connections are the governing elements that control the behavior. Cracking was only observed at the connection, and there were no proper plastic hinge formations at the panels. Therefore, it was concluded that anchored connections cannot be designed for high ductility levels. Some suggestions are made regarding the area of use of anchored connections in precast panels.