10CUEE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
10th International Conference on Urban Earthquake Engineering
March 1-2, 2013, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

LOW DUCTILITY CONCRETE WALL TEST CONSIDERING PERPENDICULAR WALL ACTION
Carlos Zavala1), Patricia Gibu2), Luis Lavado3), Jenny Taira4),
Lourdes Cardenas4) and Luis Ceferino5)
1) Professor, Structural Laboratory, CISMID-FIC National University of Engineering (UNI), Lima, Peru
2) Associate Professor, Structural Laboratory, CISMID-FIC National University of Engineering (UNI), Lima, Peru
3) Assistant Professor, Structural Laboratory, CISMID-FIC National University of Engineering (UNI), Lima, Peru4) Assistant Researcher, Structural Laboratory, CISMID-FIC National University of Engineering (UNI), Lima, Peru
5) Research Student, Structural Laboratory, CISMID-FIC National University of Engineering (UNI), Lima, Peru

Abstract: Low ductility wall buildings became part of the Peruvian construction boom of the first decade of the 21stcentury. Government promote under the Program named Mi Vivienda (My house in English), the construction of low risebuildings of 5 stories using walls with wire mesh reinforcement, provide part of a solution of the apartment deficit, withreasonable cost. However, the height of the buildings started to grow and grow, reaching 12 to 16 stories. In the design ofthis walls, provisions recommend the confinement of the corners of the walls, due the action of the walls ensemble will
give a limited ductility under seismic behavior. In this paper the comparison of the action of perpendicular wall with a one
plane wall is presented. Here experimental test has been performed by a cyclic loading test considering the action of aconstant axial load of 40 kN, where the elastic stiffness of H shape wall is higher than one plane wall. Also resistant of theH shape wall increase, however ductility remains almost similar in both walls, due to the slip during the H wall test.

1. INTRODUCTION
Low ductility buildings appears at the middle of 1997
in Peru. As an initiative of Professor Galvez from graduate
school of FIC-UNI, the promotion of the first multifamily
building of four stories with the concept of replacing themasonry on a confines wall by a thin concrete wall reinforce
with electrowelded wire mesh, will produce a compose
material with similar better characteristics than the masonry.
First experiments on this kind of wall where successfully
developed at structural laboratory of CISMID-FIC-UNI(Zavala et. al 2003), considering a low stress concrete (100kg/cm2) a wall of 10 cm. thickness, 250 cm. height, 300 cm.
length and reinforce on corners of 3 bars #3 with wall
reinforce of Q91 wire mesh of 3 mm. diameter @ 10 cm.
The result was a low ductility wall with low drift, even lower
than the masonry limit (where Peruvian standards demands
maximum drift of 1/200), with maximum drift near 1/400.
Muro AGV02
Envolvente Cortante - Drift
108Cortante (Ton)642-0.0100-0.005000.0000-20.0050

0.0100-4-6-81/200-10

Drift (mm/mm)

Figure 1: Behavior curve (Zavala et. al 1997)

This took the attention for the design of this kind ofwall since the reinforce has upper yield point (65 to 70 ksi)
than regular A60 bars (60 ksi), which is one of the reasons ofthe less ductility.
The Ministry of Housing invest in the research of thebehavior of this kind of wall, so configuration variable andreinforce variable area presented( Zavala et. al 2003).
Since 1999 the use of this walls starts to grow onbuildings projects. Government, through Ministry ofHousing, promote under the Program named Mi Vivienda(My house in English), the construction of low rise buildingsof 5 stories, provide part of a solution of the apartment
deficit in the country, with reasonable cost.
However constructors started to grow in altitude thebuildings to 8 stories, 12, stories and 16 stories, using thesame reinforce, without research the behavior as a middle
high building.
Therefore, on 2003 the Ministry of Housing introduce
an recommendation for the design of low ductility walls on
the Peruvian Concrete Standards.
The investigations of this kind of wall continue at UNI
during the following years. On 2004 Medina and Zavalaproduce a research considering ideal conditions on material,construction process and standards. As an example a wall
reinforce with normal concrete (210 kg/cm2), 10 cm.
thickness 250 cm. height, 300 cm. length and reinforce of 3bars #4 with wall reinforce of QE257 wire mesh of 5.7 mm
diameter @ 10 cm. gave results with a drift limit similar thanconfined masonry and upper stress.

- 599 -Muro QE257-EP02
Envolvente Cortante - Drift5040Cortante (Ton)30
2010-0.0150-0.0100-0.005000.0000-100.0050

0.01000.0150-20-301/200-40-50
Drift (mm/mm)

Figure 2:Behavior Curve Medina et. al 2004
Since 2004 investigation has been performed on inplane walls, however non investigation considering this kindof walls have been developed in Peru.
Under the SATREPS Peru - Japan joint research projectand using the new jack system of capacity of 500 kN and400 mm. stroke investigation of low ductility wall with theaction of a perpendicular has been performed. In this paperpreliminary results are presented showing the tendency ofthe contribution of the perpendicular wall to the in planewall.
2.
ABOUT THE EXPERIMENTAL TESTCONSIDERING PERPENDICULAR WALL ACTION
In order to investigate in experimentally the influenceof the perpendicular wall on and H shape configuration
against one plane wall, two experiments were performed: anexperiment on a one plane wall, and an experiment with aperpendicular wall that produce an H shape wall.
2.1 About Test specimen
Both walls (one plane and H wall) will has the same
dimensions: 2500 mm. length with 2600 mm. height and100 mm. thickness. In the case of H wall, a flange with a
total dimension (Bf) of 2500 mm. is incorporated to the one
plane wall, in order to investigated it influence by themeasured stresses.
The walls have a reinforce on the corners asconfinement 3 bars #4. Wire mesh appears as reinforcementof the web and flange with electro welded mesh Q-158 (5.5mm. diameter @ 0.15m As=1.58 cm2/m). Is common use of
600 mm. dowels between stories on buildings, but in thecase of the specimens dowels are same growing from thefooting base. Figure 3 presents the configuration of bothspecimens, one plane and H shape wall, notice that there is ahorizontal border beam of 300 mm. by 300 mm. section on
the top of each beam. Also foundation of 900 mm. by 300
mm. is on the bottom part of the specimen.
The construction process tried to replicate as near thereal environment on the site area. So wire mesh from thefooting was fixed with the wire mesh of the wall and threeductile bars #4 were placed on the corners of the specimens.
Wood forms were used to encase the reinforcement and set
the fluid mix of concrete inside to produce the concrete wall.

Figure 3: Test specimen configuration for H shape wall
On the top of each wall a loading beam is build to be
use for setting of the loading steel frame. Figure 3 presents
four stage of the constructions of the specimens.
2.2 About test performance
For the test execution 2 jacks and one actuator wereused for the application of the loads. Axial load equivalent to
200 kN that approximately represents the load of four stories
over the wall.

Figure 4: Test Setup on Plane and H walls.
During the execution of the test, this load will beapplied at the beginning of the load process, and after
reaching 200 kN, the load will remain constant during thewhole test. To simulate the lateral action such a earthquake- 600 -

CISMID/FIC/UNI-JICA SATREPS Project
Low ductility concrete wall -H- Wall 03
04/06/2012

CISMID/FIC/UNI-JICA SATREPS Project
Low ductility concrete wall -Wall 02
18/02/2012

500

500
400

400

300

300

200

200

100-20-15-10-50 -2.185, 7.25
05-100101520Base shear (kN)

Base Shear (kN)movement, an increasing cyclic displacement will be applied
to the specimen in order to start the movement of the walland measure in each step the load.
For the measure of the displacements a set of transducer
were placed to measure displacement in different locations
on the walls. In the one plane wall and web wall (on H shapespecimen), displacements transducers were set on thepositions presented on Figure 5, here sensors on the body of
the wall were setting on the diagonal, vertical and horizontal
in order to reproduce the displacement on all directions.
For the measure of the stress on points strain gauges wereglued to the surface of the concrete and to the reinforce bars.
All the sensors and gauges, were connected to an scanningbox and data logger Tokyo Sokki TDS 530.

100
0-20-15-10-5-100

0

5

1015

20-200
-200

-300

-300

-400

-400
Displacement (mm)-500
Displacement (mm)Figure 6: Hysteresis curves of one plane wall and H
shape wall
Due to the slip of the specimen, we will consider thebehavior of the H wall previous to the slip and compare thebehavior curves of both specimens for this condition. Theslip of the specimen occurred for 1/1600 drift, just after thecracking starts on the specimen. Figure 7 presents thebehavior curve showing that both curves almost reached thesame capacity. However, considering the first stage of thetest, when drift is less than 1/1600, the behavior will
introduce a difference on the resistant.

On Figure 4, the test setup of both specimens arepresented. Here is possible to notice the difference on thesetup due to need of application of the axial load and lateralload simultaneously in special in the case of the H shapewall were space is quite narrow to applied both loads. In thecase of H shape wall the perpendicular wall (flange wall) has
three lines of sensors in order to investigated thedisplacement on that positions and the dissipation of thestress. Also strain gages were set for the same purpose.

2.3 Test results
The cyclic displacement versus base shear on theexperimented walls are presented on
Figure 6, where hysteresis curves of the development ofeach test are presented. It is possible to read that bothspecimens had almost the same level of maximum stress, but
in different failure mode. The reason of this similitude ofstress level is due to an slip on the foundation occurs after 4mm displacement. In the case of the one plane wall, shear
cracking appears on the base of the experiment. Thenflexural cracks starts to appear on both borders elements,
propagation horizontally. Finally diagonal cracks appear anda combination of shear failure with slip failure of the base, isthe final failure pattern.

- 601 --0.008-0.006-0.004

16
14
12108
64
2
0-0.002 -20.000-4-6-8-10-12-14-16

One Plane Wall - M20.002

0.004

0.006

0.008

DriftWall - H - M3

Figure 7: Behavior curves plane wall and H shape wall

CISMID/FIC/UNI-JICA SATREPS Project
Comparison Low ductility concrete wall - Wall 02 vs Wall 03
Shear Stress (kg/cm 2 )Figure 5: Displacement transducer setting

Shear Stress (kg/cm 2 )CISMID/FIC/UNI-JICA SATREPS Project
Comparison Low ductility concrete wall - Wall 02 vs Wall 03

121086420-0.0010 -0.0008 -0.0006 -0.0004 -0.0002 -20.0000 0.0002 0.0004 0.0006 0.0008 0.0010-4-6-8-10-12One Plane Wall - M2

DriftWall - H - M3

Figure 8: Behavior curves plane wall and H shape wallfor drift less than 1/1600

On Figure 8 is presented the behavior curve prior theslip of the specimen. There is a notorious contribution of theperpendicular wall on the behavior.

completed showing similar results for the capacity of thewalls.
Therefore, considering the behavior prior of the slip of
the specimen shows a notorious difference between planeand H wall shear resistance.

CISMID/FIC/UNI-JICA SATREPS ProjectComparison Low ductility concrete wall - Wall 02 vs Wall 03
Shear Stress Ratio

2.0This difference was evaluated in terms of ratio of bothstresses for the same drift. Results shows that during elastic
stage of the specimen, perpendicular walls contribute 18% tothe shear resistance, but after cracking stress ratio increase
till 40%. So the contribution of the perpendicular wall will
be very important during the inelastic behavior of the wall

1.6
1.2
0.8
0.4

0.0-0.0010 -0.0008 -0.0006 -0.0004 -0.0002 0.0000 0.0002 0.0004 0.0006 0.0008 0.0010
Drift
Stress Ratio
Ideal ratio

Figure 9: Stress ratio between H wall and plane wall
On green color is presented the shear stress ratio
between the H wall and plane wall, that was compute fromthe test results. It is possible to the that when jack is pushing
the curve shows a very defined ratio, however when jack ispull, the capacity of the system gave lower values. It is
possible to recognize that ideal behavior on a simulation is
given when jack is pushing the specimen. On red color in
Figure 9, is presented ideal shear stress ratio for the wall.
Here we can see that till behavior is elastic the ratio is about
1.18, so perpendicular wall action will increase 18% of shear
stress capacity. After cracking of the specimen the increment
became higher and reach a value of 1.40, so it means anincrement of 40% in the shear resistance due to theperpendicular wall action.
A preliminary formula for the variation of the shear
stress to evaluate the contribution of the perpendicular walls
to the plane wall is the following:Hplane= 552.98+ 1.039

We need to continue the study in order to verify thespread of stress on perpendicular flange wall and web wall.
We need to consider more study for the perpendicular action
on the non linear behavior developing more test to prove thetendency of the preliminary formula (1) presented in thispaper.

Acknowledgements:
The authors would like to express our gratitude to the Ministryof Education of Japan, thorough the Japan Science and Technology
Agency (JST) and the Japan International cooperation Agency(JICA) for the support the Japan-Peru SATREPS Project for thesupport to this research. Also our gratitude to Dr. Fumio Yamazaki
PI investigator of the SATRPES project and promoter of thisinvestigation.
References:Zavala, C., Medina G. and Proaño, R. (2005), “Behavior ofConcrete walls reinforce with electrowelded wire mesh,”Research Report CISMID-FIC-UNI (In Spanish).
Medina G. and Zavala C. (2004), “Study of the behavior of low
ductility and one story scale model reinforce with electroweldedwire mesh ”, Graduate Thesis FIC-UNI (In Spanish).

(1)

where Hplaneis the shear stress ratio between the H wallwith the plane wall and  is the interstory drift.
3. CONCLUSIONS
Low ductility walls are an alternative to build middle
rice buildings in Peru. Many research has been performed onplane walls however non research has been performed on
this kind of wall to measure the perpendicular wall action.
Therefore the present research present the first contribution
in Peru for the knowledge of this action.
Two walls were investigate: one in plane and the otherwith H shape where the contribution of the flange to the inplane wall intend to be measure.
Unfortunately the H specimen slip occurs at 1/1600
drift during the test, after cracking occurs so test was- 602 -