Experimental study on slotted RC wall with steel energy dissipation links for seismic protection of buildings

In this paper a novel RC (Reinforced Concrete) shear wall named the slotted RC wall is presented. The main feature of the novel wall is the vertical slots along the wall, equipped with steel energy dissipation links. The slotted wall is designed to improve the deformation capacity and control the damage for the conventional shear wall. To deeply investigate the seismic performance of the proposed slotted wall, five wall specimens were designed, including a conventional shear wall and four slotted walls with different slot widths and shear link sizes. Quasi-static cyclic test was conducted. The test results presented much improved energy dissipation capacity in the slotted walls compared with the conventional wall. The slotted configuration decreases the stiffness and bearing capacity of the wall compared with the conventional RC shear walls, and slightly enhances the deformation capacity of the wall. This enhanced deformation capacity is most evident in the slotted wall with the weakest energy dissipation links, which did not sustain damage to the RC components under a drift ratio of 1/100, and failed under a drift ratio of 1/36. A numerical model of the slotted wall was constructed and the results are compared with the experimental results, showing good agreement and confirming the effectiveness of the slotted wall configuration.