Experimental and numerical study on seismic behavior of reinforced concrete shear walls with bulging-induced defects

作者：Zheng Lu, Yuzhen Chen, Xiangqian Liu, Die Wang, Jianbao Li · 发表于：Advances in Structural Engineering · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1177/13694332261428178 · 研究领域：Seismic Performance and Analysis、Structural Behavior of Reinforced Concrete、Masonry and Concrete Structural Analysis

To examine the effect of bulging-induced defects on seismic behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls, one intact specimen and two specimens with varying degrees of defects were designed. Quasi-static tests were conducted to examine and compare the failure modes, hysteretic curves, load-bearing capacity, stiffness degradation, and energy dissipation capacity of the specimens. The results indicated that bulging-induced defects altered the crack propagation and failure modes of RC shear walls. Cracks tended to develop along the defects, and increased defect severity led to a transition from flexure-shear failure to brittle diagonal tension failure, attributed to the elevated diagonal principal tensile stress caused by section weakening and stress concentrations at the defect edges. Bulging-induced defects reduced the load-bearing and deformation capacities of the specimens. Specifically, in comparison to specimen SW-0, specimen SW-2, which exhibited the most severe defect, experienced reductions of 13.9% and 15.5% in yield load and peak load, respectively. Similarly, the yield, peak, and ultimate displacements declined by 21.7%, 30.7%, and 23.5%, respectively. To further explore the effects of defect ratio on seismic performance of shear walls, a numerical model incorporating defects was developed using OpenSees. A mathematical model was established to describe the relationship between defect ratio and peak load-bearing capacity. Based on the defect-integrated model, the...