###### Abstract  
In this study, four single-story reinforced masonry shear walls (RMSWs) (two prefabricated and two cast-in-place) under reversed cyclic loading were tested to evaluate their seismic performance. The aim of the study was to evaluate the shear behavior of RMSWs with flanges at the wall ends as well as the effect of construction method. The test results showed that all specimens had a similar failure mode with diagonal cracking. However, the crack distribution was strongly influenced by the construction method. The lateral capacity of the prefabricated walls was 12% and 27% higher than that of the corresponding cast-in-place walls with respect to the rectangular and T-shaped cross sections. The prefabricated walls showed better post-cracking performance than did the cast-in-place wall. The secant stiffness of all the walls decreased rapidly to approximately 63% of the initial stiffness when the first major diagonal crack was observed. The idealized equivalent elastic-plastic system showed that the prefabricated walls had a greater displacement ductility of 3.2-4.8 than that of the cast-in-place walls with a displacement ductility value of 2.3-2.7. This proved that the vertical joints in prefabricated RMSWs enhanced the seismic performance of walls in shear capacity and ductility. In addition, the equivalent viscous damping of the specimens ranged from 0.13 to 0.26 for prefabricated and cast-in-place walls, respectively. prefabricated reinforced masonry shear wall; cyclic loading; vertical joint; seismic performance +
Footnote †: journal: Applied Sciences  
of the walls. The lateral capacity can be precisely predicted based on the plane cross-section assumption [6; 7; 8; 9]. Furthermore, the shear failure is characterized by the diagonal cracks with a brittle behavior, which represents a low energy dissipation capacity [10; 11; 12; 13]. Due to the complexity of each component contributing to the lateral strength, there are some experimental programs concentrating on the design modes of RMSWs failing in the shear wall under reversed cyclic loading [14; 15; 16]. In addition, a few studies were carried out using artificial neural networks to predict the lateral capacity of reinforced masonry walls [17; 18; 19]. The results showed that the proposed models perform better than do existing equations. However, the models based on the artificial neural networks lack the mechanics theory and their accuracy depends on the experimental database. Regarding the prefabricated RMSWs, the key problem is the connection of prefabricated members. Two main connection joints are horizontal joints and vertical joints in the shear wall structures. The crucial part of the horizontal joints is the connection of vertical reinforcement. [PERSON] et al. [20; 21] tested nine prefabricated RMSWs with horizontal joints to evaluate the seismic performance under lateral cyclic loading. The results show that prefabricated RMSWs have higher lateral capacity than do traditional walls. The paper explained that prefabricated RMSWs eliminate the cleaning-hole blocks at the bottom course of the wall because of the change of construction technique. This improvement changes the connection method of vertical reinforcement from overlapped to continuous. The continuous vertical rebar performs better than an overlapped one does as a shear wall component. With respect to the vertical joints in the prefabricated RMSWs, [PERSON] et al. [22] proposed an innovative vertical joint connection of prefabricated RMSWs [22]. The research variables were axial compressive stress, horizontal reinforcement ratio, and construction methods. The results show the proposed vertical joints enhanced the seismic performance of prefabricated RMSWs in shear capacity and ductility. In addition, a few studies focused on the seismic performance of RMSWs with flanges or boundary conditions to enhance the ductility and energy dissipation [23; 24; 25; 26]. [PERSON] et al. [24; 25] tested seven RMSWs with different end configurations and aspect ratios under cyclic loading.