Experimental investigation on the mechanical behaviour of a new superimposed RC exterior basement wall with socket base

A new superimposed RC exterior basement wall with socket base is proposed here. To investigate the mechanical behaviour and failure mode, nine such basement walls and one cast-in-place basement wall were tested under the monotonic lateral load. The test results indicated that crack distributions and the corresponding loads of the superimposed basement walls under the serviceability limit state, which is the critical state that controls the design of the basement wall, are approximately identical with those of their cast-in-place counterpart. The failure of this new basement wall is generally dominated by the failure of the diagonal compression struts in the wall embedded in the socket base, whereas the failure mode of its cast-in-place counterpart is shear-compression failure near the bottom of the wall. Furthermore, the effects of four critical parameters were investigated: embedded length, thickness of the exterior lateral wall of socket base, longitudinal reinforcement ratio and roughness of the interface. The outcome of this study will provide systematic experimental data and conceptual understanding for the design of superimposed RC exterior basement walls with socket bases.