Lateral load behaviour of a rectangular precast shear wall involving vertical bolted connections

This article is concerned about precast reinforced concrete shear walls and the methods of assembling shear wall panels to form a reliable load transfer system. An assembling method is proposed using dry connection through an H-shaped steel connector (H-connector) and high-strength bolts. A preliminary design, including the H-connector design and bolt design, has been carried out based on the force analysis on the vertical connection in the wall assembly. On the basis of the finite element analysis verified by an experimental study, the preliminary design has been confirmed and a monolithic coefficient ( ζ) has been used to evaluate the cooperative working performance of the two parallel shear walls. Then this article continues to carry out a finite element parametric study on the mechanical behaviour of the precast reinforced concrete shear walls with varying parameters, which includes the bolt specification, the frictional coefficient on the contact surface within the bolted connection and the thickness of the H-connector flange. The lateral load bearing capacity, lateral stiffness and cooperative working performance of the wall assemblies involving these varying parameters have been broadly analysed.