# A Restoring Force Model for Prefabricated Concrete Shear Walls with Built-In Steel Sections
###### Abstract  
Prefabricated shear walls have been widely used in engineering structures. Vertical connection joints of the walls are the key to ensure the safety of the structures. Steel-concrete composite structures have been proved to have a good bearing capacity and ductility. In this paper, a new type of prefabricated structure is proposed, in which vertical wall members are connected together through built-in steel sections and cast-in-place concrete. This paper studies the seismic performance of the proposed prefabricated concrete shear wall structure. Hysteretic curves and skeleton curves of the shear wall are obtained based on experimental analyses. A dimensionless skeleton curve model is developed using the theory of material mechanics and the method of regression analysis. A stiffness calculation method for different loading stages is obtained and a restoring force model is proposed. The proposed innovative prefabricated shear wall structure provides good resistance to seismic performance and the related analysis provides a fundamental reference for studies of prefabricated shear wall structures. prefabricated shear wall; built-in steel section; seismic performance; stiffness calculation; restoring force model +
Footnote †: journal: Applied Sciences  
a focus on shear walls reinforced with steel sections and restoring force models. In seismic engineering, the resilience of structures has been evaluated using restoring force models that reflect the relationship between the load and displacement of structures under cyclic loading and measure the ability of shear walls to recover their original shape after an earthquake event. Research has been carried out on concrete walls reinforced with steel sections. It has been proved that steel sections can improve the bending resistance and ductility of the walls [1]. [PERSON] et al. [2] performed a study on edge restraint zones that are strengthened with steel sections, which have good ductility and can effectively reduce the corner damage of the test wall. [PERSON] et al. [3] tested five specimens strengthened with steel sections. The results showed that this type of connection has a good bearing capacity and good ductility. The experimental and numerical results are in good agreement. [PERSON] [4] developed a cyclic restoring force model of fiber-reinforced concrete shear walls in high-rise building structures. Five steel fiber-reinforced concrete shear walls were tested under a horizontal reverse cyclic load combined with a constant axial load. [PERSON] et al. [5] considered the stiffness degradation under repeated loading and proposed a bilinear model with a stiffness degradation input. [PERSON] et al. [6] simplified the \"Clough\" model and developed a new model that reflects the bending deformation of reinforced concrete beam-column members and is simpler and more practical. [PERSON] et al. [7] presented static (monotonic) and dynamic (cyclic) test data to evaluate the statistics of the appropriate parameters of the proposed damage model. The uncertainty in the ultimate structural capacity was also examined. [PERSON] [8] presented modeling of both flexural and shear responses of tall reinforced concrete core wall buildings and studied the potential impact of coupled flexure-shear behavior. [PERSON] et al. [9] proposed a simplified model for simulating the damage of squat RC shear walls under lateral loads. [PERSON] et al. [10] investigated the effectiveness of a simple macroscopic model in predicting the nonlinear response of slender reinforced concrete shear walls. [PERSON] et al. [11] studied composite steel-concrete structural shear walls with different encased steel shapes. [PERSON] et al. [12] carried out low-cycle repetitive tests of eight steel-reinforced concrete shear walls. A four-line load-displacement restoring force model was proposed, in which the stiffness degradation is considered. [PERSON] et al.