Seismic behaviour of RC short shear wall strengthened with externally bonded CFRP strips

The present study addresses the applicability of CFRP partial strengthening technique on the short RC walls (weak in shear) to attain reasonable strength and drift without deterioration in the wall energy dissipation capacity, under seismic loading. Three RC walls were tested: one control wall and two walls strengthened with CFRP, using two different bonding configurations. The RC walls represent at 1:3 scale, the lower part of a shear wall of the existing typical five stories building designed prior to seismic loading consideration i.e., in 1960 in Europe (Switzerland and France). The walls were subjected to displacement controlled cyclic lateral loading, accompanied with a constant axial load at the head beam level. The strengthened walls showed satisfactory performance with improved shear strength and drift, compared to the control wall, with negligible deterioration in dissipation capacity. The test results discussion includes stiffness, ultimate load capacity, deformability, and energy dissipation.