Destruction extent of reinforced concrete shear walls demolished by soundless chemical demolition technology: Improvement by structural and parameter design

Soundless chemical demolition technology (SCDT) has broad application prospects in the field of building demolition due to its cleaner and more cost-effective characteristics. However, insufficient research on the application of this technology to reinforced concrete structures makes it only a substitute for traditional demolition methods, necessitating further explored. In this study, destruction tests of shear walls were conducted using SCDT to investigate the effects of structural parameters, structure treatment methods, and hole parameters on demolition efficiency. Experimental results showed that the reinforcement spacing played a more dominant role in wall damage than diameter and the concrete tensile strength. The treatment method of structure cutting could improve the destruction extent of walls by more than 40 %, while the effect of structure cutting type on the extent of destruction was not significant. The destruction forms of walls varied among random, partly random, and non-random distribution of cracks with the increase of structure cutting degrees. The increase of hole diameter or the decrease of hole spacing could enhance the expansion of soundless chemical demolition agent (SCDA) and the stress level between holes, resulting in a higher extent of destruction. Further, a novel design method of hole parameters based on systematic analyses of the structural parameters, structure treatment methods, and hole parameters was presented, laying a solid foundation for the popularization of SCDT in building demolition.