| Abstract: | L‐shaped reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls have been studied over the years due to their importance in tall buildings. However, few investigations focus on the progression of damage with increasing deformation, especially on the deformation limits for different performance levels. Hence, an experiment was conducted on 12 L‐shaped RC shear walls subjected to axial and cyclic lateral loadings. The variables were shear span ratio, axial load ratio, and longitudinal boundary element reinforcement ratio. The seismic performances were analyzed and discussed in terms of crack pattern, failure mode, hysteretic response, backbone envelope, and ductility factor. On the basis of the three key performance state points on the backbone envelope, a method was proposed to assess the seismic performances of L‐shaped RC shear walls using six distinct performance levels. These performance levels were provided with relevant deformation limits and proved to be in good agreement with six significative damage states. Further, comparative analysis showed that the deformation limits derived from experiments were significantly underestimated by current codes and methods available in literature, because these prediction models were mainly developed for rectangular shear walls. Considering the contribution of flange, a modification of Cui's method yields good estimations of deformation limits for L‐shaped RC shear walls. |
