Shear performance of precast SHCC infill walls for seismic retrofitting of non-ductile frames

Infilled frames have been investigated by many researchers during the last few decades. It is noted that frame structures incorporating infill walls have shown definite economic and performance advantages over conventional rigid-frame structures when the structures are required to resist large lateral loads due to earthquake ground motion. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the effect of notches in the infill walls and to investigate the effect of the ductility of cementitious composites, particularly strain hardening and multiple cracking, on the seismic performance of infill walls subjected to displacement reversals. The experimental investigation consisted of cyclic loading tests on four 1/3-scale models of infill walls. Material ductility and notches in the infill walls were the main variables in the test. In the test results, as expected, strain-hardening cementitious composite infill wall specimens showed multiple crack patterns due to the bridging of fibres and stress redistribution in the cement matrix. Although the strain-hardening cementitious composite infill wall had a less effective section near the notched mid-section, it showed a higher strength and energy dissipation capacity than those of the reinforced concrete infill wall specimen without a notched mid-section.