Evaluation of seismic performance and retrofit of lightweight reinforced concrete shearwalls

This paper describes the structural response of lightweight reinforced concrete (LWRC) shearwalls with embedded structural steel members. Experimental and computational studies were conducted to investigate the brittle in-plane splitting failure induced by knife-edge loading caused by the embedded steel members. The computational study confirmed the observed in-plane splitting through detailed three-dimensional nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA). Several retrofitting strategies to confine the shearwall were experimentally investigated. The most effective retrofit scheme was also evaluated using the three-dimensional FEA. Based on the experimental and computational findings, through-thickness bonded rods were shown to be the most viable retrofitting technique to increase shear and deformation capacity of the LWRC shearwalls.