Abstract: In the present paper，effect of construction joints on the seismic performance of shear wall structure was studied． Taking the shear wall structure whose construction joints were set by three common ways as the research object，which was compared with the shear wall structure without construction joints． The FEM software ANSYS was used to establish finite element models． The hysteretic behavior，ductility，rigidity degeneration and some other seismic performance of the four models were compared． The results show that the presence of construction joints could reduce the ductility and energy dissipation capacity of shear wall structure，which has little effect on the rigidity degeneration． The seismic performance of shear wall structure was reduced． At last，the best way of setting construction joints should be found out from the study．