Numerical analysis of seismic behavior of a new-type horizontal wall-to-wall connection for precast concrete shear walls

Structural connections are among the most essential parts in prefabricated concrete structures and good-quality design of connections is one major key to a successful prefabrication. A new horizontal wall-to-wall connection way for precast shear wall systems, which have been attempted in the field of modern residential buildings in China, is presented in this paper. An abaqus-based nonlinear finite element(FE) analysis under monotonic loading is implemented in order to understand the seismic performance of the proposed connection way of precast shear walls in comparison with that of the cast-in-place connection way. From the numerical results, it is concluded that the seismic performance of the presented connection technique, such as the deformability and the energy-dissipation capacity, is not weaker than that of its cast-in-place counterpart.