Most reinforced concrete (RC) school buildings constructed in the 1980s have seismic vulnerabilities due to low transverse reinforcement ratios in columns and beam-column joints. In addition, the building structures designed for only gravity loads have the weak-columnstrong- beam (WCSB) system, resulting in low lateral resistance capacity. This study aims to investigate the lateral resistance capacities of a two-story, full-scale school building specimen through cyclic loading tests. Based on the experimental responses, load-displacement hysteresis behavior and story drift-strain relationship were mainly investigated by comparing the responses to code-defined story drift limits. The test specimen experienced stress concentration at the bottom of the first story columns and shear failure at the beam-column joints with strength degradation and bond failure observed at the life safety level specified in the code-defined drift limits for RC moment frames with seismic details. This indicates that the seismically vulnerable school building test specimen does not meet the minimum performance requirements under a 1,400-year return period earthquake, suggesting that seismic retrofitting is necessary.

Reinforced concrete shear walls with deficient reinforcement details are tested under cyclic loading. The deficiency of reinforcement details includes insufficient splice length in U-stirrups at the ends of horizontal reinforcement and boundary column dowel bars found in existing low- to mid-rise Korean buildings designed non-seismically. Three test specimens have rectangular, babel and flanged sections, respectively. Flexure- and shear-controlled models for reinforced concrete shear walls specified in ASCE/SEI 41-13 are compared with the flexural and shear components of force-displacement relation extracted separately from the top displacement of the specimen based on the displacement data measured at diverse locations. Modification of the shear wall models in ASCE/SEI 41-13 is proposed in order to account for the effect of bar slip, cracking loads in flexure and shear. The proposed modification shows better approximation of the test results compared to the original models.