The seismic performance of precast walls with unbonded post-tensioning has been investigated by pervious researchers, most notable is the jointed wall system developed as a part PRESSS (Precast Seismic Structural Systems) program. However, the economical feasibility of such systems has been questioned. A precast concrete wall system entitled PreWEC (Precast Wall with End Columns) has been developed by researchers at Iowa State University to overcome the flaws of previous systems to providing an economical alternative to the traditional cast in place concrete wall.
A joint research program is underway involving Iowa State University, the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) in Taiwan and the University of Auckland. The aim of the program is to verify the performance of the PreWEC system through large scale experimental tests. The first wall specimen, PreWEC-1, will be tested at the NCREE laboratory in March 2008. PreWEC-1 consists of a 6.1 m high precast concrete wall connected to CFT end columns with mild steel energy dissipating connectors. All three elements are post-tensioned to the foundation with unbonded steel tendons. The experimental results will be used to verify the proposed design methodology as well as detailed finite element analysis.