Mechanical Performance of Prefabricated External Wall Panel under Horizontal Displacement

In this paper, experiment and Finite Element Method (FEM) approaches are employed to study the mechanical performance of prefabricated external wall panel under lateral displacement. Tensile bond strength test and Z-shaped specimen direct shear test of the bonding interface of mortar to ceramsite concrete are performed, the normal and shear mechanical property of the interface is studied respectively. Scaled model test of prefabricated external wall panel under lateral displacement is then performed to obtain load-displacement curve, and mechanical behavior of prefabricated external wall panel in different stages is studied. Moreover, ABAQUS finite element analysis model for scaled model test panel is established based on previous study about bond interface and the results from experiment and FEM analysis are relatively consistent with each other. It is found that with the gradual increase in tangential contact stiffness of joint interfaces, the overall lateral stiffness of wall panels will approach complete joint consolidation conditions before the peak load. However, when the tangential contact stiffness of joint interfaces increases to a certain extent, there will be little change in initial lateral stiffness.