Feasibility of a novel prefabricated concrete wall system for masonry structures

Abstract This paper presents an experimental investigation on a novel prefabricated concrete wall system with horizontally placed hollow core panels. Compared with traditional clay bricks, prefabricated concrete hollow core panels have the advantages of convenient quality control, reduced self-weight, fast installation, low labour cost, and high load-bearing capacity. In this study, nine full-scale wall specimens (i.e., two under compression, five under compressive and lateral loads, and two under compressive and cyclic lateral loads), which were extracted from an apartment project, were prepared and tested. As evidenced by the experiments, the load-bearing capacities of the walls could satisfy the design requirement. In general, the failure occurred in the panel-to-panel connections, panel-to-frame connections, and corners of openings. The openings (i.e. windows and doors) substantially reduced the compressive and shear capacities and resulted in a more ductile failure. The pinching effect was apparent for wall specimens under cyclic loads, and the energy dissipation capability of the wall was reduced when a door opening was set. The design standard for masonry walls was adopted to estimate the axial compressive and shear strength owing to the unavailability of a design standard specifically for the new type of hollow-core walls. The predicted strength was generally significantly lower than the experimental strength, revealing a large safety margin for engineering applications.