EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR OF THIN WALL CONCRETE PANELS SUBJECTED TO AXIAL ECCENTRIC UNIFORMLY DISTRIBUTED LOADING

Abstract

Due to the current popularity of reinforced concrete (RC) wall construction, and the new published of codes of concrete, RC walls have become just as an important structural elements as beam, slabs and columns. This paper presents an experimental study of structural behavior of thin concrete wall panels subjected to axial eccentric uniformly distributed loading with varying aspect ratio (AR=H/L) and concrete type (concrete strength (f^'_c)). The experimental program included testing of six two-way thin concrete wall panels, fixed at all sides and applying the load axially with eccentricity equal to wall thickness/6).The results indicate that the load carrying capacity of the normal strength concrete (NSC) wall panels decreased with the increase in AR (H/L) from 1.25 to 2.00, the ultimate load reduced from 37.5% to 14.6 % when AR decreased from 2.00 to 1.25. For Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC), the ultimate load reduced from 38.7% to 16% when AR decreased from 2.00 to 1.25. The strength of the concrete wall increases with the increase in concrete strength (f 'c) from 33.5MPa to 120.4MPa , the increase is about (212.5, 207.3, 206.67) % for panels with H/L = (1.25, 1.50, 2.00) respectively.