Shear behavior of strain-hardening cement composite walls under quasi-static cyclic loading

In this study, strain-hardening cement composites (SHCCs) made of micro fibers only were manufactured and applied to fabricate four 1/3-scale shear walls for cyclic loading tests. A reinforced concrete (RC) wall also was fabricated to be used as a control specimen. The experimental results show that the SHCC walls exhibited significantly higher shear strength than the RC wall. A large number of fine cracks were observed in the SHCC walls due to the bridging action caused by the reinforcing fibers. Specifically, higher energy dissipation capacities and slower stiffness degradation characteristics were found for the SHCC walls compared to the RC wall. In terms of shear strength, it can be inferred from this study that the ACI Code can adequately predict the shear capacity of a RC wall but underestimates the shear strength of SHCC walls. In order to propose an equation that can evaluate the shear strength of SHCC walls, the direct tensile strength and a fiber-reinforcing (FR) index were considered. Also, a factor that describes the relationship between tensile and compressive strength was estimated using the results of earlier studies. This study shows that the shear strength of SHCC walls can be predicted using the proposed equation.