Strength of Precast Concrete Bearing Walls with Large Opening

Abstract

     This research studied the strength of precast concrete bearing walls with large opening. The size of specimens was reduced to get the strength of 1/3 of the actual nominal wall’s strength. Two specimens were constructed with the dimensions of 175 cm wide, 175 cm high and 7 cm thick. One of which was a solid wall, the other had a 45% opening. Tests were performed by applying the uniformly distributed load at the upper edge along the length of the wall. Test results showed that the wall without opening had a load carrying capacity of 78.43 tons with a buckling mode of failure. The ultimate testing load was found to be 2.4% and 14.1% different from the theoretical values according to the ACI 318-19  and AS-3600-2009 standard , respectively. For the wall with large opening, the failure mode was flexural failure with compression control. The load carrying capacity was 47% decrease. This experimental value compared to the theoretical value suggested by Saheb and Desayi  was found to be 7.4% different. The discrepancy may result that the theoretical vale was formulated by the test results of wall with opening less than 27%. Therefore, from this research of wall with very large or 45% opening, the Empirical formula was developed using test results both of Saheb and Desayi [3] and researchers. The proposed formula can decrease the degree of discrepancy to be less than 2.3% which suitable for strength prediction of walls with large opening.

Keywords: Strength of precast concrete bearing wall, Strength of precast concrete bearing walls with large opening, Equation for strength of precast concrete walls with large opening