Review study on performance of seismically tested repaired shear walls

IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308
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Volume: 03 Special Issue: 16 | ICPECDM-2014 | Dec-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 129
REVIEW STUDY ON PERFORMANCE OF SEISMICALLY TESTED
REPAIRED SHEAR WALLS
S.KanakaDurga1
, G. Appa Rao2
1
Research Scholar, and 2
Professor,Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
Email: 1
kanakadurga2004@gmail.com ,2
garao@iitm.ac.in
Abstract
Shear walls are normally preferred in RC buildings and other important structures to resist the lateral forces due to earthquakes,
wind storms, or impact loads. They are frequently encountered in earthquake resistant designs recently. This paper compiles the
review of literature on structural behavior of RC shear walls under cyclic loading, before and after repair under similar loading
condition. The performance characteristic such as strength, stiffness, energy dissipation, and modes of failure of squat shear walls
repaired with different retrofitting techniques are presented.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Shear walls are added to the structural system in order to
provide lateral resistance against lateral loading due to wind
or earthquake forces. Several improvements have been
occurred over the past years in the design and detailing of
RC walls. When the performance of the shear walls does not
satisfy the requirements of strength, retrofitting techniques
can be adopted to upgrade its performance level by any one
of the methods practicable. “Rehabilitation” is the term used
when the wall has already been damaged and its resistance
needs to be restored and improved as well. “Strengthening”
is the term used when the wall is not subjected to any
damage.
The ratio of applied moment-to-applied shear force or aspect
ratio (A/R) can be replaced with the ratio of wall height-to-
horizontal wall length. The lateral loads can be resisted in
shear walls either by cantilever action mostly in slender
walls or high rise walls (A/R > 2)or by truss action in
squat/short walls or low rise walls (A/R < 2). High-rise
shear walls predominantly fail in flexure, whereas low-rise
walls fail in shear. Squat shear walls are provided in
important structures like nuclear plants where safety of the
structure is a concern.Yielding of tension or compression
steel or crushing of concrete at ultimate stages causes
flexure cracks near the bottom part of the wall. Inadequate
horizontal or diagonal reinforcement causes diagonal
tension cracks. Sufficient shear reinforcement with
formation of compression strut can lead to diagonal
compression failure. Provision of sufficient horizontal
reinforcement with inadequate vertical reinforcement can
cause sliding shear.
Local buckling of web can be prevented by adding boundary
elements such as columns or flanges at the wall ends, and
minimum thickness of the web. Proper confinement of wall
can prevent the in-plane splitting failure. Squat shear walls
should be heavily reinforced to avoid shear-related failures.
During an earthquake there may be a partial collapse (or
damage) of the structure, which can be restored to original
level. Many strengthening schemes such as use of FRP, FRC
and steel jackets or steel cages, FRP reinforcing bars and
pre-stressing strand are being adapted to bring the
performance levels of the deteriorated structures for
satisfying the performance requirements of the current
design codes of practice. Most of the retrofit techniques
have resulted in various levels of upgradation. However,
issues like effectiveness, resources, invasiveness, cost and
practical implementation are major challenges to be
overcome. The present research paper focuses on strength
retention of the original shear wall after repair and
retrofitting with different techniques.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls
The behavior of shear walls has been reported by many
researchers. The investigations on issues related to shear
walls include; load-displacement response, crack pattern,
modes of failure, variation of strains in reinforcement. The
parameters normally studied from experimental
investigations include shear strength, shear stress vs. shear
strain response, story drift, energy dissipation, stiffness
degradation, displacement ductility.
Oesterle et al. (1980) highlighted the importance of
transverse reinforcement and also the anchorage of wall
reinforcement into the boundary elements. The dimensions
of hoop and spacing serve four primary functions: i) lateral
confinement to increase limiting strain capacity of concrete
core. ii) support vertical reinforcement in resisting inelastic
buckling. iii) retain concrete within the core along with
vertical bars iv) improves shear capacity and stiffness for
dowel action of boundary elements. Four isolated RC walls
with one-third scale factor were cast and tested under
seismic loading. The wall with normal column tie spacing
failed due to inelastic buckling of vertical reinforcement.
The wall with special transverse reinforcement exhibited
sufficient shear capacity for the formation of hinge at the

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base of boundary element. The anchorage of wall horizontal
reinforcement plays an important role in the formation of
horizontal cracks in the tension boundary element which
subsequently propagated into web as diagonal crack. The
horizontal web reinforcement need to be extended across the
boundary element and terminated with standard 90° bend for
low shear walls and 135° hook for high shear walls.
Ordinary column tie reinforcement
Special transverse reinforcement
Fig. 1. Confinement reinforcement in boundary wall
provided (Oesterle et al. 1980)
Salonikios et al. (1999) tested eleven reinforced concrete
walls designed according to Eurocode 8. The code provides
different design equations for diagonal tension, diagonal
compression and sliding shear modes of failure. The aspect
ratios of the walls coincide with the shear ratio as=M/Vlw
since they are cantilever shear walls. Five walls have the
aspect ratio of 1.0 and six with 1.5. The test parameters are
aspect ratio, use of bidiagonal bars with and without
distance at the intersection point at base, web reinforcement
ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio, with and without
axial loading, and presence of construction joints in one
specimen with aspect ratio of 1.5. The walls were tested
under three loading cycles at each ductility level. The walls
failed predominantly in flexure mode, with intersection of
flexural cracks originating from opposite edges. Concrete
crushing and reinforcement buckling at the confined edges
was observed. Pinching of hysteresis loop was observed in
walls without diagonal bars due to horizontal sliding and
bond-slip of vertical reinforcement. Sliding was controlled
in walls with bidiagonal bars.
Aspect ratio 1.5
Fig.2.Failure pattern in RC wall with lateral and axial load
(Salonikios et al. 1999).

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Salonikios et al. (2000) reviewed the strength
characteristics of experimentally tested walls (1999) and
focused on energy dissipation and stiffness degradation. A
detailed discussion on Eurocode 8 and ACI 318 provisions
for the design of shear wall is presented. The Eurocode
considers the ductility in calculating the maximum capacity
of walls. A reduction in the envelope curve is observed
during second and third cycles of loading when compared to
first cycle due to aggregate interlock and dowel action.
Displacement ductility factor is the ratio of ultimate
displacement (corresponding to a 25% drop in the peak
strength) by yield displacement (corresponding to the
development of 75% of the maximum strength). It is
observed that at higher ductility total displacement is
contributed by shear. All walls experienced stiffness
degradation at higher levels of deformation. Specimens
subjected to axial load in addition to lateral load and also
with higher percentage of reinforcement in the web and
boundary elements experienced low rate of degradation.
Walls with aspect ratio 1.5 exhibited higher energy
dissipation characteristics due to increased displacements.
The provision of diagonal bars also contributed to higher
energy dissipation capacity.
Palermo et al. (2002) provided experimental data on two
full scale flange shear walls for constitutive models. The
walls were tested under static and cyclic lateral
displacements with and without axial load. The specimens
had top slab serving the purpose of transferring loads to the
wall and inturn it was anchored to the strong floor with
bottom slab. Diagonal cracks extended over full height of
the wall which increased in size with increasing
displacements. Localized crushing was observed on the web
wall due to non-realignment of cracks during unloading
phase. Evenly spaced flexural cracks appeared throughout
the height of the boundary element and vertical cracks
appeared at the flange web connection. The wall without
axial load had a sudden failure after peak load due to the
formation of failure plane over the entire length of the wall.
Concrete spalling at the toe of the web near the base slab
was observed. Two second order phenomena namely flange
elongation and bulging of the web wall were also studied. It
has been concluded that squat shear walls produce highly
pinched hysteresis response with little energy dissipation
and influenced by shear mechanisms.
Hidalgo et al. (2002) experimentally tested twenty six full
scale squat shear walls. The amount of vertical and
horizontal reinforcement was varied for all the walls. The
walls were tested without axial load, and horizontal cyclic
load was applied at the mid-height of the walls. The walls
without distribution reinforcement exhibited poor seismic
characteristics after formation of the first major diagonal
crack. The deformation capacity of the walls with low
aspect ratio was decreased. Average normalized dissipated
energy is calculated by summing up the energy dissipated in
each individual cycle, and dividing the result by the number
of cycles. It is observed that vertical distribution
reinforcement had little or no influence on the maximum
shear strength of the walls. There was increase in
deterioration of strength as the aspect ratio of the walls
decreased.
2.2 Repair of Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls
Galal et al. (2008) discussed the retrofitting methods of RC
shear walls and emphasised that the retrofit technique
should improve wall’s seismic performance in terms of
strength, stiffness, ductility or combination of all. The
retrofit techniques using traditional methods are concrete
replacement, concrete jacketing, steel sections, steel
bracings, through-thickness rods and using new materials
are FRP laminates and shape memory alloys. The factors
that control the type of retrofitting technique for RC shear
walls are: i) expected mode of failure ii) desired level of
increase in stiffness, strength, ductility etc iii) budget for
retrofit v) physical constraints such as architectural
requirements, accessibility of the building during retrofitting
process etc.
2.2.1 Conventional repair technique
Vecchio et al. (2002) tested repaired RC shear walls. The
repair technique included recasting of web with new
concrete up to top 180mm from the soffit of the top slab and
completed using a high-strength, non-shrink epoxy grout.
Punching shear failure was observed in the web-flange joint,
whereas shear slip failure at the base near the repair
interface in the reconstructed walls.
2.2.2 Externally bonded steel plates
Elnashai et al. (1998) brought out selective techniques for
repairing damaged walls. Use of external bonded steel plates
was recommended for increasing the stiffness without
altering the strength. The plates were bonded to the wall
with epoxy mortars. The addition of external unbounded
reinforcement bars increased the strength without affecting
stiffness of the walls. Ductility can be increased by adding
U-shaped external confinement steel plates. The shear
strength can be enhanced by providing steel plates in
horizontal bands. Strengthening of RC structural members
with externally bonding steel strips is an effective technique
for improving the seismic resistance. Considerable research
has been performed on columns and beams, low masonry
walls to increase the shear capacity of these members. Altin
et al. (2013) extended this technique to RC walls subjected
to earthquake loading. Four walls deficient in shear strength
were cast; one controlled wall and three were strengthened
with steel strips. A scale factor of 2 and a slenderness ratio
(the ratio of length-to-width) of 1.5 was used. A head beam
for transfer of lateral load and a foundation for anchoring
the walls to the floor are cast integrally with the wall panel
(shear wall). The wall was provided with 6mm diameter
horizontal and vertical reinforcement in two layers and a
concentrated vertical reinforcement of 16mm at end regions.
Concrete of 18MPa compressive strength was used. The
three walls vary in the alignment of steel strips such as
diagonal, lateral and a combination of lateral and vertical.
Steel strips were bonded to the walls after 28 days of curing
and then walls were tested after 15 days. All the walls were

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subjected to lateral load. Application of epoxy adhesive to
surface of the wall and insertion of anchor rods prevented
debonding of steel strips and delayed premature buckling of
steel strips.
Control specimen
Diagonal steel strips
Lateral steel strips
combination of lateral and vertical steel strips
Fig. 3.Control and strengthened specimens with steel strips
(Altin et al. 2013)
The reference walls failed in diagonal tension shear. Such
failure was prevented in strengthened walls due to shear
strength of bonded steel strips. The maximum base shear
was controlled by flexure. The anchors enabled in limiting
the opening of shear cracks thereby increasing the lateral
load, drift energy dissipation capacities of the strengthened
walls. Shear sliding displacements were observed once the
strengthened walls attained their flexural capacities. The
strengthened walls exhibited 65% higher ultimate strength,
improved initial stiffness and ductility than the controlled
walls.
2.2.3 Concrete jacketing
Concrete jacketing is one of the measures to be used in
seismic strengthening where new concrete is cast against an
existing surface. The two materials vary in age and hence it
is necessary to study the shear transfer capacity at the
interface. Bass et al. (1989) tested thirty-three push off
specimens to determine shear force at the interface. The
specimen consists of column referred as “base block” and
the infill wall constructed above the base block referred as
“new wall”. Specimens were cast in vertical, horizontal
overhead positions. Different interface characteristics were
adopted, which include; untreated, heavily sand blasted,
chipped to achieve surface roughness, provided with shear
key and coated with epoxy agent before pouring new
concrete. It has been concluded that increase in embedment
depth, amount of reinforcement, and use of deep surface
preparation techniques at the interface results in high shear
strength at higher slip levels.

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Fig. 4. Typical push-off specimen (Bass et al. 1989)
Fig. 5. High Strength steel mesh used in specimens (Marini
et al. 2008)
Marini et al. (2008) assessed the effectiveness of seismic
strengthening of RC shear walls with thin high performance
jackets. One-third scaled shear walls were designed only for
gravity load, strengthened with high performance jackets
and tested under cyclic loading. High performance jacket
includes a steel mesh with tensile strength of 1200MPa
covered with a thin layer of concrete of compressive
strength greater than 140MPa. The steel mesh consisted of
bent weaved wires of 2mm diameter and 20mm spacing. A
uniform crack pattern with limited opening extended from
the wall base to the critical zone of failure. The failure was
governed by bending moment upto collapse. The failure of
strengthening walls occurred due to crushing of concrete
jacket at the base, exhibiting high ultimate strength,
structure deformation capacity and ductility.
2.2.4 Fibre reinforced polymers
Lombard et al. (2000) studied the effectiveness of
externally bonded carbon fibre tow sheets for seismic
strengthening and repair of reinforced concrete walls. As a
part of the experimental work, one controlled, a repaired and
two strengthened walls were tested. The carbon fibre sheets
were bonded to surface of the walls using epoxy matrix and
anchored to the foundation. The damaged wall was repaired
by one vertical layer of FRP. The undamaged walls are also
strengthened with FRP. The failure in control wall was due
to crushing of concrete at the toe of the wall. The repaired
wall regained 90% of the initial stiffness and experienced
ductile failure in flexure mode. The strengthened walls had
increased secant stiffness and load carrying capacity.
Antoniades et al. (2003) retrofitted squat RC shear walls
with FRP jackets in combination with FRP strips in order to
increase the strength of heavily damaged during earthquake.
The original walls were designed according to Eurocode 8
provisions. The spacing of web reinforcement and
arrangement of bidiagional reinforcement were varied. One
wall was repaired conventionally by replacing damaged
concrete with non shrink mortar, and welding of fractured
reinforcement. Remaining damaged walls were strengthened
with FRP. Repaired wall could achieve original strength but
showed less initial stiffness and energy dissipation capacity
when compared to original wall. The hysteresis behaviour
and initial stiffness of FRP strengthened wall was more than
the conventionally repaired wall but less than that of the
original wall. The propagation of existing shear cracks was
prevented by FRP jackets.
Fig. 6.Failure pattern in FRP strengthened wall (Antoniades
et al. 2003)
Paterson et al. (2003) performed tests on strengthened RC
shear walls with poor detailing. The detailing deficiencies
include lap splicing of the longitudinal reinforcement in the
plastic hinge region, poor confinement of boundary
elements and anchorage of transverse reinforcement, and
insufficient shear strength to develop hinging. The walls
cantilevering from a heavily reinforced foundation block
were anchored to the strong floor and tested in horizontal
position. The first control specimen was provided with lap
splice at the base and failed due to failure of lap splice. The
lap splice was provided in the region of flexural hinging in
the second control wall and it exhibited more ductile
capacity than the first control wall. One wall was
retrofittedwith provision of reinforced collar and wrapping it
with carbon fibre to increase the shear strength. Another
wall was retrofitted with additional confinement
reinforcement over the lap splice region along with headed
bars and CFRP wrapping. The retrofitted walls exhibited
good displacement ductility, energy absorption and flexural
hinging. The combination of headed reinforcement with
CFRP reduced the shear distress and was effective in
confining the boundary elements.

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Wall with reinforced collar and CFRP
Wall with headed reinforcement and CFRP
Fig.7. Failure pattern in strengthened walls byPaterson et al.
(2003)
Ghobarah et al. (2004) rehabilitated RC walls with fibre
composites to enhance the wall capacity to earthquake loads
and also ductility. Three walls were tested; control wall,
upgraded with bi-directional fibre-reinforced sheets and
bidirectional sheets anchored with additional steel bolts. The
control wall was deficient in shear and ductility. The
rehabilitated walls were wrapped with bi-directional sheets
in the wall region and uni-directional sheets on the boundary
elements. The boundary elements were also provided with
FRP anchors in the upgraded walls. The control wall
developed tension cracks at the bottom and midheight of the
wall. Diagonal cracks were formed in both the directions
increased in size leading to complete shear and sudden
failure of the wall. Crushing of concrete was observed at the
toe of the wall on the compression side and the vertical steel
in the boundary elements buckled. The horizontal bars
yielded and the tensile strains were recorded both in pushing
and pulling direction. In the first rehabilitated wall
delamination of CFRP sheets occurred at ductility level 1.5
in the wall region but they were intact in the boundary
elements. FRP anchors failed at the bottom region of the
wall and as a result concrete crushing and buckling of steel
lead to failure of the specimen. In the second rehabilitated
wall debonding of CFRP sheets was controlled by the steel
anchors which resulted in less reduction in stiffness and
more energy dissipation capacity. The rehabilitated walls
recorded more strain in concrete, less strain in horizontal
bars, higher displacement ductility than the control wall.
The alignment of fibres at 45 degrees prevented shear mode
of failure. FRP anchors failed in shear but steel anchors
failed due to yielding. The confinement of the boundary
elements with CFRP sheets delayed concrete crushing and
also enabled in developing full tension in longitudinal bars.
Control wall
Rehabiliated wall
Fig. 8. Failure mode in walls (Ghobarah et al. 2004)
Li et al. (2010) designed eight walls with less confinement
reinforcement as recommended by New Zealand Concrete
Design Code and American Concrete Institute Code. The
variables were: aspect ratio, axial load and the amount of
distribution reinforcement in the wall. The walls had
boundary elements and were categorized as low or medium
rise as per the aspect ratio. Four original and four walls
repaired and retrofitted with GFRP/ CFRP were tested. The
original walls failed in flexural mode, exhibited heavy
damage at the base with shear and flexural cracks along the
height. The repair and retrofit methodology includes
removal of damaged concrete and replacing with polymer
modified repair mortar, injection of epoxy into cracks at the
base of the wall and strengthening with FRP material. GFRP
U-shaped jacket was used to confine the flange walls and
GFRP anchors were provided along the development length
of the sheets. The repaired walls showed less stiffness
degradation, more ductility, and recovered almost original
strength before post-peak than the original specimens. It has
been observed that strength retention of CFRP wrapped
specimens is more than GFRP specimens.

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3. CONCLUSION
Several repair and retrofit techniques adopted for improving
the seismically deficient, undamaged and seismically
damaged squat shear walls to validate experimentally has
been reviewed. The conventional technique of removing and
replacing damaged material retains the original strength but
exhibits less energy dissipation capacity and initial stiffness.
The stiffness, strength and ductility of undamaged walls can
also be improved by using steel plates. Concrete jacketing is
an effective retrofit technique and can be adopted in
practice. Fibre-reinforcement polymers application in
strengthening of undamaged and damaged shear walls has
increased due to ease of application.The problem of
delamination of fibres occurs in FRP strengthened walls
only after attaining the peak load. The retrofitted walls
exhibited flexure mode of failure, improved energy
dissipation, and less stiffness degradation.
4. REFERENCES
1. Oesterle, A.E., Fiorato, A.E., and Corley, W.G. (1980).
Reinforcement Details for Earthquake-Resistant
Structural Walls. Concrete International, Dec., 55-66.
2. Salonikios, N. Thomas., Kappos, J. Andreas., Tegos, A.
Ioannis., and Penelis, G. Georgios. (1999). Cyclic Load
Behavior of Low-Slenderness Reinforced Concrete
Walls: Design Basis and Test Results. ACI Structural
Journal, 96(4), 649-661.
3. Salonikios, N. Thomas., Kappos, J. Andreas., Tegos, A.
Ioannis., and Penelis, G. Georgios. (2000). Cyclic Load
Behavior of Low-Slenderness RC Walls: Failure
Modes, Strength and Deformation Analysis, and Design
Implications. ACI Str Jl, 97(1), 132-142.
4. Palermo, D., and Vecchio, F.J. (2002). Behavior of
Three-Dimensional Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls.
ACI Stl Jl, 99(1), 81-89.
5. Hidalgo, P.A., Ledezma, C.A., and Jordan, R.M.
(2002). Seismic Behaviour of Squat Reinforced
Concrete Shear Walls. Earthquake Spectra, 18(2), 287-
308.
6. Galal, K., and EI-Sokkary, H. (2008). Recent
Advancements in Retrofit of RC Shear Walls. 14th
World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. October
12-17, 2008.
7. Frank, J. Vecchio., Omar, A. Haro de la Pena., Filippo
Bucci., and Daniel Palermo (2002). Behaviour of
Repaired Cyclically Loaded Shear Walls. ACI Str Jl,
99(3), 327-334.
8. Elnashai, A.S., and Pinho, R. (1998). Repair and
Retrofitting of RC Walls Using Selective Techniques.
Journal of Earthquake Engineering, 2(4), 525-568.
9. Altin, S., Kopraman, Y., Baran, M. (2013).
Strengthening of RC walls using externally bonding of
steel strips. Engineering Structures, 49, 686-695.
10. Bass, A. Robert., Carrasquillo, L. Ramon., and Jirsa, O.
James. (1989). Shear Transfer across New and Existing
Concrete Interfaces. ACI Str Jl, 86(4), 383-393.
11. Marini, A., and Meda, A. (2008). Seismic Retrofitting
of Existing Shear Walls by means of High Performance
RC Jacket. 14th
World Conference on Eq Engg. October
12-17, 2008.
12. Lombard, J., Lau, David. T., Humar, Jag. L., Foo, S.,
and Cheung, M.S. (2000). Seismic Strengthening and
repair of RC Shear walls. 12th
World Conference on EQ
Engg. 2000.
13. Antoniades, K. Konstantinos., Salonikios, N. Thomas.,
and Kappos, J. Andreas. (2003). Cyclic Tests on
Seismically Damaged Reinforced Concrete Walls
Strengthened Using Fiber-Reinforced Polymer
Reinforcement, ACI Str Jl,100(4), 510-518.
14. Paterson, J., and Mitchell, D. (2003). Seismic retrofit of
shear walls with headed bars and carbon fiber wrap.
ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, 129(5), 606-
614.
15. Ghobarah, A., and Khalil, A.A. (2004). Seismic
Rehabilitation of Reinforced Concrete Walls Using
Fibre Composites. 13th
World Conference on EQ Engg.
August 1-6, 2004.
16. Li, B., and Lim, C.L. (2010). Tests on Seismically
Damaged RC Structural Walls Repaired Using Fibre-
Reinforced Polymers. Journal of Composites for
Construction, 14(5), 597-608.

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