Ductility of a Structural Wall with Spread Rebars Tested in Full Scale

The experimental work focuses on the ductility of the reinforced concrete (RC) seismic structural walls in buildings of mid-rise height. A full-scale five-story structural wall was tested to obtain results, still scarce in literature, without the influence of size effect. An unusual detailing with large diameter longitudinal rebars uniformly distributed in the wall length was adopted to prevent premature web rebar fracture and shear sliding. The plastic hinge length and deformations were evaluated in detail. The results show the high ductility of the wall that reached a total drift of 2.5%, larger than those usually required in design.