Experimental and theoretical investigation on seismic behavior of precast wall panel structures based on different bolt arrangements

Previous studies have shown that bolt-connected precast wall panel structures have good seismic behavior. However, the existing research lacked a complete calculation method for the bending capacity of horizontal seam. This paper proposed a novel method for calculating the bending capacity of horizontal seam. To validate the applicability and rationality of the calculation method, six precast wall panel specimens with bolt-connected joints were designed. Quasi-static tests were conducted to investigate the influence of parameters such as the number of bolts, arrangement, size, and type on the seismic performance of the wall panel structure. The main test results indicated that: (1) With an increasing number of bolts, the failure area of the specimens transitioned from the tensile joint to the bottom of the concrete compressive boundary. (2) There were obvious relative vertical slips between the wall panel and the connectors, which reduced the height of the concrete compressive zone. (3) The maximum bending capacity of the wall panel structure significantly decreased when high-strength bolts were replaced with ordinary bolts. Finally, considering the relative vertical slips between the connectors and the wall panel, the calculation method for the maximum bending capacity of the horizontal joint was improved and optimized. The results showed that the maximum bending capacity calculated using the improved method aligned well with the test results and can be applied to the study of horizontal joints in bolt-connected concrete wall panel structures.