Title:
Seismic Design of Intermediate Precast Group-Coupled Shear Walls
Author(s):
Won-Jun Lee, Deuckhang Lee, Min-Su Kim, and Xianze Jin
Publication:
Structural Journal
Volume:
123
Issue:
3
Appears on pages(s):
195-210
Keywords:
coupled shear wall; G-factor; group coupling; intermediate precast structural wall; precast concrete; vertical connection
DOI:
10.14359/51749491
Date:
5/1/2026
Abstract:
As modern industrial and residential buildings become larger and longer, the use of precast concrete (PC) has been essential in current practice. A PC lateral force-resisting system has inevitable discrete joints between precast components, which are considered one of its major concerns in structural integrity and emulative seismic performances comparable to monolithic connections. It can be overcome through code-compliant joint details and tight connection quality under capacity design philosophy, for which suitable emulative design methods also need to be adopted. This study aims to investigate various design options based on the so-called degree-of-coupling (DOC) in vertical wall-to-wall connections in lateral seismic design of an intermediate precast coupled shear wall system. To this end, a flexible and cost-effective lateral design method is proposed by addressing a simple but reasonable factor (G). To verify the proposed approach, an experimental campaign and robust analytical studies were conducted. Especially in the experimental program, several precast coupled shear walls with semi-emulative and fully emulative connection details in wall-to-wall vertical connections were tested under cyclic loading. On this basis, it appeared that an existing design process of precast coupled shear wall systems can be simplified, providing reasonable accuracy and design flexibility for engineers toward cost-effective intermediate precast shear wall systems.
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