Behaviour factor and displacement estimation of low-ductility precast wall system under seismic actions

This paper investigated the seismic behaviour of an innovated non-ductile precast concrete wall structural system; namely HC Precast System (HCPS). The system comprises load-bearing precast wall panels merely connected only to column at both ends. Such study is needed because there is limited research information available in design codes for such structure particularly in regions having low to moderate seismicity threats. Experimentally calibrated numerical model of the wall system was used to carry out nonlinear pushover analyses with various types of lateral loading patterns. Effects of laterally applied single point load (SPL), uniformly distributed load (UDL), modal distributed load (MDL) and triangular distributed load (TDL) onto global behaviour of HCPS were identified. Discussion was focused on structural performance such as ductility, deformability, and effective stiffness of the wall system. Thus, a new method for engineers to estimate the nonlinear deformation of HCPS through linear analysis was proposed.