Performance of Profiled Concrete Shear Panels

This paper describes the behavior of profiled concrete shear panels that may be used as core walls in framed construction. This research developed as a part of a larger program of work on a novel form of composite walling system that utilizes double skins of profiled steel sheeting to form a sandwich construction. The work reported here involves the profiled concrete alone and provides information on the behavior of concrete walls that may be formed with a profiled surface. Model tests of 1/6 scale using microconcrete confirmed that the diagonal tension limit state should be the design criterion and the shear resistance of the profiled panels can be derived from its equivalent plain concrete panel. Compared to plain concrete panels, the state of stress within the panel and its boundaries is changed due to profile geometry. It has been found that a reduction factor may be introduced in the design equation to take into account the effect of hysteretic application of load. Finite-element simulation of the profiled panels was found to be good enough to predict the precracking behavior.