1. Introduction
RC structure has been widely applied in the construction industry due to the easy availability of building materials, advanced mechanical properties, and huge economic benefits. However, RC structure does have its disadvantages, such as the large consumption of building materials, huge amount of building waste, heavy pollution, high labor intensity, low degree of industrialization, and so on [
1]. Apparently, it does not conform to the national policy of "Saving Resources and Protecting the Environment" and "Building a Resource-saving, Environmentally Friendly Society and Adhering to the Road of Sustainable Development". Compared with the RC structure, the PC structure has many advantages [
2], e.g., high-quality components, fast construction, energy saving, pollution reduction, and low disturbance to the residency. Therefore, the PC structure is one of the key structure types advocated by the Chinese government.
For the PC shear wall structure, connection is the key [
3,
4]. According to research conducted both at home and abroad, the forms of connection can be categorized into two main types: wet connection and dry connection. At the same time, the effects of the connection and assembling zone on the shear wall have also been studied, since they are likely to affect the mechanical behaviors of the wall. For example, Dhanasekar et al. [
5] thought that shear walls with different strengths of materials may result in unexpected failure modes, and they emphasized the importance of ensuring compatible material properties.
Wet connection mainly includes sleeve grouting connection [
6,
7,
8,
9] and lap connection [
10,
11,
12,
13,
14]. Tullini [
15] and Wu [
16] studied the influence of sleeve grouting connection on shear walls. The test results show that this type of wall exhibits ductile and stable hysteretic behaviors; furthermore, the effectiveness of sleeve-mortar connections in load transfer is also validated. Liu [
17] carried out a quasi-static test on the shear wall with sleeve grouting. The test shows that the sleeve connection is very sensitive to the grouting quality, which can affect the performance of the assembling zone. Qian et al. [
18] thought that full pouring is difficult to conduct in the interface of the connector, and horizontal gaps may form in the assembling zone. As a result of this, the ductility and energy dissipation capacity of the structure are reduced. Wang et al. [
19] studied the influence of banded and lapped connection on shear walls. The test shows that when the connector is located at the upper part of the wall, the mechanical behaviors of the PC wall and the RC wall are basically the same; but when the connector is located at the bottom of the wall, the wall is prone to severe damage because the load is the largest at the bottom and the connector is unbearable. In summary, the stress of vertical rebars can be effectively transmitted with the wet connection form. However, it is undeniable that this kind of connection is complex in structure and technique intensive. These shortcomings may somehow compromise the advantages of the PC structure, and make the quality of the connection difficult to guarantee.
Dry connection mainly includes prestressed connection [
20,
21,
22,
23,
24,
25], welded connection [
26,
27,
28], bolted connection [
29,
30,
31], and anchor connection [
32,
33]. Lago et al. [
34] considered that if dry connection is correctly designed, the wall may still enjoy a good seismic performance. Kurama [
35] studied the influence of unbonded post-tensioned prestressed connection on shear walls. The test shows that the strength and initial stiffness of the PC wall are basically equivalent to those of the RC wall, but the energy dissipation capacity looks inferior. Bora et al. [
36] used the bolts to connect the PC wall and the ground beam. The result shows that the PC wall with bolts boasts a good ductility and energy dissipation capacity under an earthquake load. Ozturan et al. [
37] studied the influence of various forms of connection on shear walls, including welded connection, bolted connection, and so on. The results show that the seismic performance of bolted connection is better than that of other connections, but still lower than the RC connection. Dhanasekar et al. [
38,
39] studied the influence of bolt looseness on structures. It is common that bolts loosen over a period of time, and this phenomenon may cause the out-of-plane rotation of tall shear walls. Song et al. [
40,
41,
42,
43] monitored the phenomenon of bolts looseness and found it common in the structures with bolted connection. In summary, the present PC shear wall with dry connection cannot achieve the same seismic performance as the RC shear wall. It is still necessary to improve the connector and pay close attention to its influence on the mechanical behaviors of the wall.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of a patented bolted connector (by Jiang et al. [
44]) on the mechanical behaviors of the PC shear wall and conclude with suggestions for the revision of this form of connector. The rest of the paper is organized as follows.
Section 2 introduces the connector designed and patented by Jiang et al., the preparation of specimens, and the results of quasi-static experiments. A numerical model is developed and the corresponding parametric analyses are performed in
Section 3.
Section 4 includes the conclusive remarks.
4. Conclusions
On the basis of the experimental and numerical analyses, the following conclusions can be drawn:
(1) The strain of the connector is less than the yield strain and the failure does not occur in the connector. The mechanical behaviors of the PC shear wall with this form of bolted connection, such as ductility, stiffness, and energy dissipation capacity, can satisfy the requirements of the equivalent RC shear wall.
(2) This form of bolted connection has little influence on the overall mechanical behaviors of the PC shear wall, thus, it can be used in practical design.
(3) By means of numerical analyses, some reasonable suggestions are made for the design of the connector. In practical design, (a) it is suggested that high strength bolts with a high pretightening force should be adopted to reduce the value of slip; (b) the number of bolts can be reduced on the basis of earthquake-resistant detailed requirement and transmitted force need; (c) the axial compression ratio can be set to 0.5 in this form of the PC shear wall, which also meets the Code for Seismic Design of Buildings [
53] about cast-in place shear walls.