Effect of web reinforcement on the seismic response of concrete squat walls reinforced with glass-FRP bars

Six full-scale concrete squat walls reinforced with glass-fiber-reinforced-polymer (GFRP) bars were tested to failure under quasi-static reversed cyclic loading. Each test specimen measured 200 mm thick, 1500 mm long, and 2000 mm high. The test parameters were the configuration of web reinforcement (horizontal and/or vertical) and the horizontal web reinforcement ratio. The test specimens experienced different mode of failures as a function of the web reinforcement. The horizontal web reinforcement was found to significantly increase the ultimate load capacity as long as the failure was dominated by diagonal tension. It had no significant effect when the amount of horizontal web reinforcement provided was greater than what was needed for flexural resistance. Both horizontal and vertical web reinforcement was shown to be essential for crack recovery between load reversals and for controlling shear crack width as well as for enhancing the concrete contribution to the lateral shear resistance.