Shear performance of the interfaces for precast concrete shear wall components by novel preparation method

For emulating cast‐in‐place (CIP) precast concrete (PC) shear wall structures in China, the adjacent PC shear wall components are joined by vertical post‐cast concrete. Shear behavior of concrete‐to‐concrete interfaces is critical for structural integrity. A novel preparation method, as cast using bubble film (BF) form, is proposed. Shear performance experiments are conducted to obtain the shear capacity and deformation characteristic of the specimens by the preparation methods of hydro‐demolition (HD), as‐cast by patterned steel plate (PSP) form and BF. Concrete strength and shear reinforcement are also considered. By comparison with reference CIP specimens, HD specimens performs best, followed by BF specimens, and the worst are PSP specimens. The collected shear loads for HD and BF specimens are larger than calculated results under diagonal shear failure, assuring structural integrity. Concrete strength and shear reinforcements have effective influence on interface shear capacity. Shear reinforcements with small diameter and small spacing are recommended.