| A series of four shear wall specimens was tested in order to evaluate a seismic retrofit that has been proposed for the core wall of an existing building in Berkeley, California. Like many reinforced concrete shear walls that were built in the 1960s and early 1970s, the core wall in this building was constructed with reinforcement details that would result in a non-ductile seismic response. These poor details include lap splices in the longitudinal reinforcement in regions where flexural yielding is expected, inadequate confinement of the boundary regions, and inadequate anchorage of the transverse reinforcement. The proposed seismic retrofit involved the use of headed reinforcement, carbon fibre wrap, and reinforced concrete collars at the base of the wall.;The four shear wall specimens were tested under reversed cyclic loading. Two of these walls had a lap splice in the longitudinal steel at the base of the wall and the other two had a lap splice 600 mm from the base of the wall. One of each of these specimens was tested in the ‘as-built’ condition and the other two were retrofit prior to testing. The test results show that the retrofit strategies were successful in improving the ductility and energy dissipation of the shear walls. |
