Seismic Behavior of High-Strength Concrete Structural Walls with Edge Columns

Six high-strength concrete (HSC) structural walls with edge columns were tested under reversed cyclic lateral loading. The walls were reinforced by high-strength stirrup chains in the potential plastic region. Based on the analysis of experimental results, the average value and distribution of the lateral drift for three performance levels--namely serviceability, life safety, and collapse protection--are presented, and the impact of the axial load ratio, the shear-span ratio, and amount of confinement reinforcement on the ductility, the energy dissipation, and failure pattern were analyzed. In addition, edge columns and the amount of the stirrup chains in boundary elements were demonstrated to be effective. Finally, the ultimate strength of walls in this research, as well as those reported by other researchers, are compared using the method proposed by ACI 318-08, the softened truss model, and the softened strut-and-tie model.