The shake table test study on high-rise shear walls considering the spatial variability of concrete mechanical properties

Concrete materials in concrete structures exhibit significant randomness and spatial variability, which have considerable impact on the random responses and global reliability of these structures under seismic and other disastrous loads.To quantitatively assess the influence of uncertainty, particularly spatial variability, in mechanical properties of concrete on the seismic responses of structures, a large-scale shake table test was conducted.In this study, four single-span, 9-story reinforced concrete shear wall structures were simultaneously cast and cured.These structures were subjected to identical seismic input on the same shake table to obtain corresponding seismic responses.The experimental design aimed to keep the structural models simple while ensuring a large similarity ratio, allowing the effects of spatial variability of concrete to be reflected in the structural damage and seismic response.The study also ensured that the four structures were synchronized in casting, curing, and seismic input, with the loading process avoiding cumulative damage in the structures.Based on the experimental data, key results, including natural frequencies, damage distribution, and seismic responses, were analyzed and discussed.Preliminary results indicate that: (1) Concrete uncertainty leads to different forms of structural damage and failure; (2) Significant differences in both the fundamental frequency and higher-order natural frequencies are observed; (3) The relative ranges of inter-story displacement angles-defined as the difference between the maximum and minimum values divided by the mean-generally reach 30%, with certain floors under specific tests significantly exceeding this value.This comprehensive experimental dataset provides valuable reference data for the quantification of spatial variability, and the validation and