Abstract: The usage of high ductile concrete (HDC) in low-rise shear walls was proposed to improve their seismic behavior. The effects of axial load ratio, the amount of horizontal reinforcement and steel plate on failure patterns, ductility and energy dissipation capacity of shear walls were studied by quasi-static tests of five shear walls with the shear span ratio of 1.0. The results showed that the deformability of the HDC low-rise shear walls is significantly improved compared with the high-strength concrete low-rise shear walls. The energy dissipation capacity and deformability of shear walls are improved with the increase of the axial load ratio and the decrease of the spacing of horizontal reinforcement. The collaborative work between HDC and steel plate improves the shear capacity and energy dissipation capacity of the low-rise shear walls. A formula for calculating the shear capacity of the HDC low-rise shear walls is proposed based on the softened strut-and-tie model, and the calculation values agree well with the test data.