To gain deeper insight into the seismic performance of RC core walls, dynamic shake table tests were performed on two wall units: UWS1, reinforced with conventional steel, and UWS2, which featured largely-debonded iron-based Shape Memory Alloy (FeSMA) rebars. In UWS2, pre-stressing was applied to the FeSMAs via Joule heating to help reduce residual displacements. Both units were subjected to alternating uni- and bidirectional ground motions, with advanced data acquisition systems capturing key engineering responses throughout the tests.
Another experimental program under the envelope of the SMA-RC-Walls MSCA project focused on testing half-scale reinforced concrete boundary elements representing the critical end regions of a 4 m-long planar wall, scaled to simulate a 10-storey mid-rise structure with a high shear span. The test units—300 mm × 125 mm × 1600 mm prisms—were subjected to quasi-static, reverse-cyclic axial loading to mimic the axial tension-compression demands experienced during seismic events. While the setup applied uniform strain distributions and did not capture the complex strain gradients or out-of-plane restraint provided by the wall web, it allowed cost-effective, conservative testing of key parameters such as residual displacement, energy dissipation, crack behaviour, and instability. Advanced instrumentation, including both conventional and high-resolution tools, was employed to comprehensively assess the structural response of these boundary elements.
The outcomes of these critical experimental tests include: (i) publicly available datasets hosted in an open-access online repository, providing a valuable resource for validating and enhancing computational models of RC wall behaviour; and (ii) two peer-reviewed journal articles currently under review in leading international journals.
