ABSTRACT
The experimental study was conducted to investigate the shear performance of shear-dominated concrete walls reinforced with Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) rebars. Three concrete shear walls with aspect ratio of 1.0 were constructed and tested up to failure under cyclic lateral loading. Reference specimen (SSW) was a concrete shear wall reinforced horizontally and longitudinally with conventional steel reinforcements. Two specimens (CSW and CCW) with CFRP rebars as longitudinal reinforcement were reinforced with conventional steel rebars and CFRP rebars as horizontal reinforcement, respectively. In the experiment, the effect of reinforcement types on the cracking behavior, load-drift ratio response and reinforcing bar’s strain response of concrete walls were measured and compared. The experimental results showed that the CCW and CSW reinforced with CFRP rebars exhibited lower initial stiffness compared to the SSW. However, as the drift ratio increased and the steel reinforcement in SSW yielded, the stiffness of RC wall decreased, while the elastic properties of CFRP rebars reduced the difference in stiffness between SSW and CCW, and promoted linear behavior. While the use of CFRP rebars in the concrete walls decreased the residual width of cracks and improved repairability, it also resulted in increased maximum crack width. The shear-dominated concrete walls with CFRP rebars exhibited comparable strength and ductility with concrete wall with conventional steel rebars and showed lower residual deformation.
