Reinforced concrete shear walls play an important role in improving seismic performance of building structures. In this paper, a new type of RC shear wall with concealed bracing is proposed and investigated. Four 1:3 scale medium-height specimens were designed and a detailed experimental investigation carried out. The load-carrying capacity, stiffness, ductility, hysteretic behavior and energy dissipation of the shear wall are discussed. The failure mechanism was revealed by the experiments. It is found that in comparison with a normal shear wall, the seismic performance of a shear wall can be significantly improved by adding concealed bracing within the wall panel. Finally, a mechanical model of the shear wall is proposed and formulae for calculating load-carrying capacity developed. It is shown that the theoretical results agree well with those from experiments.
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