Shaking Table Experimental Study of the Short Pier RC Shear Wall Structures with Concealed Bracing

Abstract

Short pier RC shear wall structure with concealed bracings is put forward in this paper. Two 1/6 scale models of short pier RC shear wall structure with and without concealed bracings are tested on shaking table. Dynamic properties and responses of the two structures at different stages are studied, and the comparison of failure modes between the two models is also made. Results from the experiments indicate that at elastic stage, seismic performance of short pier shear wall structure with concealed bracing is similar to that of structure without concealed bracing. After concrete cracks appearing, the seismic performance of the former is much better than that of the latter. The displacement responses of the former are much smaller than that of the latter, and the cracks distribution areas in walls of the former is much wider than that of the latter. The energy dissipation capacity of the former is significantly improved compared with that of the latter. Nonlinear time history analysis is carried out and the calculating results agree well with the results from the experiments.