Research on Seismic Behavior and Shear Strength of Precast Composite Walls with Different Reinforced Concrete Braces

To investigate the seismic performance of precast composite walls (PCWs) with different reinforced concrete brace forms, in this study, OpenSees software was used to simulate composite walls with horizontal cross-bracing, oblique cross-bracing, and V-shaped bracing. The hysteresis curves obtained from the numerical simulations exhibit excellent agreement with the experimental data, validating the accuracy of the finite element model. Furthermore, the hysteresis capacity, load-carrying capacity, stiffness, and energy dissipation capacity of PCW with different reinforced concrete braces were compared and analyzed. The results indicate that the type of reinforced concrete brace significantly influences the mechanical properties of the PCWs. It was observed that horizontal cross-braced composite wall (HW) exhibits good deformation capacity, oblique cross-braced composite wall (OW) demonstrates the highest load-carrying capacity and stiffness, and V-shaped braced composite wall (VW) exhibits good energy dissipation capacity. On this basis, the effects of the axial compression ratio, concrete strength, filler material strength, frame column steel reinforcement, and brace steel reinforcement on the mechanical properties of different brace forms of the PCW were further analyzed. Finally, the method used to calculate the ultimate shear strength of the uniform form of the PCW is presented.