Seismic performance of self-slitting composite shear walls with energy dissipation incorporating external O-connectors

Shear walls are critical lateral force-resisting systems in high-rise buildings. However, their performance is affected by floor slab restraint, which leads to shear failure. This study proposes a novel composite shear wall with external O-connectors, featuring self-slitting and energy-dissipation. The behavior of this composite shear wall is characterized by three stages: the integral wall stage, the wall with slit stage, and the slit wall stage. During the integral wall stage, the specimen demonstrates high initial stiffness and eventually undergoes ductile failure after experiencing a split. The finite element models of self-slitting composite shear walls incorporating external O-connectors are developed using Abaqus software and validated by experiments. The effects of various parameters on the seismic behavior of composite shear walls are examined, including axial compression ratio, hoop spacing, steel strength, steel content, concrete strength, number of O-connectors, and the width of concrete in the weak zone. Increasing the axial load ratio from 0.0 to 0.6 raises the peak load, while the ductility index decreases by only 28.9 %, indicating a more gradual decline than in conventional shear walls. Widening the weak zone improves the energy dissipation of shear walls, but the widths over 60 mm reduce their overall performance. Increasing the number of O-connectors further improves both ductility and energy dissipation; installing 16 connectors increases the ductility index by 6 % compared to the walls without dampers. This research provides key insights into the seismic behavior of novel composite shear walls and offers guidance for further studies and engineering applications.