Seismic behavior of precast shear wall with novel bundled connections

Recently, precast shear walls have been investigated in the civil engineering field because of saving material resources and shortening the construction period. The type of connection between precast shear wall panels is critical to its seismic behavior. This paper puts forward a new type of connection for upper and lower precast shear walls. Vertical reinforcement bars in the lower precast shear walls are bundled and extended into the preformed holes of the upper precast shear wall. Then the preformed holes are filled with high-performance grouting materials. Experiments of eight full-scale specimens under cycling loading were carried out to discuss the seismic behavior of precast shear walls with the proposed connections. Results indicate that the proposed precast shear walls have no less than cast-in-place shear wall seismic performance with full hysteresis curve. The initial cracks occur near the top of the preformed holes and develop into the main crack, and staggering the height of preformed holes can prevent the development of cracks. Shortening the height of preformed holes does not deteriorate the seismic performance of the precast shear walls considering the welding of vertical reinforcement bars, while cracks near the top of preformed holes develop more. The principle of the works can provide a basis for the promotion of the novel connection in precast structures in the trend of building industrialization.