Tests on slender ductile structural walls designed according to New Zealand Standard

This paper presents an experimental study conducted to investigate the seismic performance and out-of-plane response of three rectangular doubly reinforced ductile wall specimens subjected to an in-plane cyclic quasi-static loading. The specimens were half-scale, representing the first story of four story prototype walls designed according to NZS3101:2006. The experimental program including details of the specimens, material properties, test setup, loading protocol and instrumentation is described. Also, the test observations, with focus on the significant stages of wall response as well as the failure patterns of the specimens, are reported considering the correlation between seismic damage and lateral drift. Two of the specimens failed at 2% drift, and their failure modes comprised of bar fracture, bar buckling, concrete crushing and out-of-plane instability. The failure pattern of the third specimen was pure out-of-plane instability which proved to have the potential to cause sudden collapse of slender ductile walls that are designed to resist other failure modes. In light of the test results, the efficacy of wall design provisions in the New Zealand concrete design standard (NZS3101) associated with the observed failure modes is scrutinised.