Performance Evaluation of Shear Walls in Existing Wall-Type Precast Reinforced Concrete Residential Buildings with New Openings

Wall-type precast reinforced concrete (WPC) residential buildings, which are assembled using prefabricated concrete panels for the slabs and walls, were widely constructed during the 1960–70s in Japan. The number of existing WPC residential units constructed before 1980 is approximately 470,000. Although these buildings are of high quality in terms of structural condition, they are not fully utilized due to their small and uniform unit plans that do not suit modern living styles. Creating new openings in the walls could widen the possibility of plan changes during renovation; however, a design methodology for new openings, including the addition of structural reinforcement, has not been developed for this unique structural system. In this research, reinforcement design for new openings was developed and improvement of seismic performance was examined in half-scale cyclic loading tests. Numerical analysis models were also developed and the behavior of the walls was well simulated.