Seismic performance of composite plate shear walls

Experimental study and design method of shear-dominated composite plate shear walls

Steel plate shear walls (SPSW) have been increasingly applied in structures as a lateral load resisting system. SPSW systems utilize thin unstiffened plates as the infill between boundary members. Infill panels are very slender elements and buckle under low lateral loads due to which SPSW relies on the post‐critical tension field action of the infill panel. Such load transfer mechanism has two downsides: a) significant transverse forces are exerted on the boundary elements, particularly columns; b) load bearing capacity of the tension infill panel after yielding is lower than yielding of the panel in shear. In order to preclude these shortcomings relatively new vertical stabilization systems, termed composite plate shear walls (CPSW), were developed where stiffening of the infill panel using reinforced concrete plate was introduced. However, lack of research on CPSW systems led to creation of structural building codes which adopted requirements prescribed for SPSW. Experimental and numerical research has been conducted on CPSW. Three specimens, with varying column flexural stiffness, were tested. The obtained results show less prominent column “pull‐in” when compared to SPSW. The results were assessed comparing stiffness, resistance and ductility between the above‐mentioned systems. Finally, the experimental results were used to calibrate numerical models. Afterwards, the obtained numerical results served for more detailed comparison of behaviour between SPSW and CPSW.

Experimental study of flexural critical reinforced concrete filled composite plate shear walls

Collapse evaluation of composite plate shear walls (C-PSWs) under seismic loading requires a reliable analytical model that can accurately capture deterioration in the strength and stiffness of the system. In this study, research was carried out to develop a macromodeling approach for C-PSWs. Nonlinear time history analyses of six multistory (7-, 10-, and 13-story) C-PSWs (traditional and innovative) located in Western Canada were performed. It was observed that a significant portion of the story shear was resisted by the boundary members, while the RC panel resisted less than 10% of the total story shear. To estimate the seismic response parameters (i.e., ductility-related and overstrength-related force modification factors) for designing C-PSWs, incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) was performed for all archetypes following a standard procedure. It was observed that all archetypes provided significant safety margin against collapse (large collapse margin ratio). In addition, a sensitivity study was conducted and the effects of postyielding parameters (ductility capacity and postcapping stiffness) adopted for the deterioration model for infill plate and postcracking parameters (shear strain corresponding to maximum shear stress, yielding shear strain, and residual stress) adopted for the deterioration model for RC panel on seismic collapse capacities of traditional C-PSWs were investigated. It was observed that postyielding parameters for the steel infill plate can affect the seismic response of C-PSWs. On the other hand, variation of postcracking parameters for the concrete panel had a minor effect on seismic collapse capacity of the C-PSW system.

The composite shear wall has various merits over the traditional reinforced concrete walls. Thus, several experimental studies have been reported in the literature in order to study the seismic behavior of composite shear walls. However, few numerical investigations were found in the previous literature because of difficulties in the interaction behavior of steel and concrete. This study aimed to present a numerical analysis of smart composite shear walls, which use an infilled steel plate and concrete. The study was carried out using the ANSYS software. The mechanical mechanisms between the web plate and concrete were investigated thoroughly. The results obtained from the finite element (FE) analysis show excellent agreement with the experimental test results in terms of the hysteresis curves, failure behavior, ultimate strength, initial stiffness, and ductility. The present numerical investigations were focused on the effects of the gap, thickness of infill steel plate, thickness of the concrete wall, and distance between shear studs on the composite steel plate shear wall (CSPSW) behavior. The results indicate that increasing the gap between steel plate and concrete wall from 0 mm to 40 mm improved the stiffness by 18% as compared to the reference model, which led to delay failures of this model. Expanding the infill steel plate thickness to 12 mm enhanced the stiffness and energy absorption with a ratio of 95% and 58%, respectively. This resulted in a gradual drop in the strength capacity of this model. Meanwhile, increasing concrete wall thickness to 150 mm enhanced the ductility and energy absorption with a ratio of 52% and 32%, respectively, which led to restricting the model and reduced lateral offset. Changing the distance between shear studs from 20% to 25% enhanced the ductility and energy absorption by about 66% and 32%, respectively.

Corrigendum to “Seismic response prediction of composite plate shear walls- concrete filled (C-PSW/CF) using machine learning methods” [Eng. Struct. 322 Part B (2025) 119228

Cyclic behaviour of composite (steel - concrete) plate shear walls (CPSW) with variable column flexural stiffness is experimentally and numerically investigated. The investigation included design, fabrication and testing of three pairs of one-bay one-storey CPSW specimens. The reference specimen pair was designed in way that its column flexural stiffness corresponds to the value required by the design codes, while within the other two specimen pairs column flexural stiffness was reduced by 18% and 36%, respectively. Specimens were subjected to quasi-static cyclic tests. Obtained results indicate that column flexural stiffness reduction in CPSW does not have negative impact on the overall behaviour allowing for satisfactory performance for up to 4% storey drift ratio while also enabling inelastic buckling of the infill steel plate. Additionally, in comparison to similar steel plate shear wall (SPSW) specimens, column pull-in deformations are less pronounced within CPSW specimens. Therefore, the results indicate that prescribed minimal column flexural stiffness value used for CPSW might be conservative, and can additionally be reduced when compared to the prescribed value for SPSWs. Furthermore, finite element (FE) pushover simulations were conducted using shell and solid elements. Such FE models can adequately simulate cyclic behaviour of CPSW and as such could be further used for numerical parametric analyses. It is necessary to mention that the implemented pushover FE models were not able to adequately reproduce column pull-in deformation and that further development of FE simulations is required where cyclic loading of the shear walls needs to be simulated.

Coupled composite plate shear walls—concrete filled (CC-PSW/CFs) are an effective seismic lateral-force-resisting system for the design and construction of mid- to high-rise buildings around the world. The coupled system consists of two or more composite plate shear walls—concrete filled (C-PSW/CFs) connected to each other using composite coupling beams located at the story heights. The CC-PSW/CF system can provide higher overturning moment capacity, lateral stiffness, and ductility than uncoupled walls. Concrete-filled steel box sections are typically used for the composite coupling beams, which are designed to be flexure critical members. When the CC-PSW/CF system is subjected to lateral seismic forces, plastic hinge formation and inelastic deformations (energy dissipation) occur near the ends of most of coupling beams along the structure’s height, followed by flexural hinging of the C-PSW/CFs, typically at the base. This paper presents the details and design of four composite coupling beam-to-C-PSW/CF connection configurations. Six connection specimens representing the four connection configurations, with beam clear span-to-section depth, Lb/d, ratios of 3.5 and 5.1, were designed and tested. The lateral force-displacement and moment-rotation responses of the specimens are summarized. All six composite coupling beam-to-C-PSW/CF wall connection specimens (1) developed and exceeded the plastic flexural capacities, Mp, of the coupling beams calculated using the plastic stress distribution method and (2) developed chord rotation capacities greater than 0.03 radian before their flexural strength degraded to 80% of the plastic moment capacity, Mp.

Seismic behaviour of novel concrete-filled composite plate shear walls with boundary columns

The use of common reinforced concrete shear walls in high rise buildings is sometimes limited because of the large amount of reinforcement localized at the end of the element. A good alternative in avoiding this disadvantage is to use composite steel concrete structural shear walls with steel encased profiles. This solution used for high rise buildings, offers to designers lateral stiffness, shear capacity and high bending resisting moment of structural walls. The encasement of the steel shapes in concrete is applied also for the following purposes: flexural stiffening and strengthening of compression elements; fire protection; potentially easier repairs after moderate damage; economy with respect both to material and construction. Until now in the national and international literature poor information about nonlinear behaviour of composite steel concrete structural shear walls with steel encased profiles is available. A theoretical and experimental program related to the behaviour of steel concrete structural shear walls with steel encased profiles is developed at “Politehnica” University of Timisoara. The program refers to six different elements, which differ by the shape of the steel encased profile and also by the arrangement of steel shapes on the cross section of the element. In order to calibrate the elements for experimental study some numerical analysis were made. The paper presents the results of numerical analysis with details of stress distribution, crack distribution, structural stiffness at various loads, and load bearing capacity of the elements.

Numerical study on the response of composite shear walls with steel sheets under cyclic loading

Mega steel braced frame-composite steel plate shear wall structure, consisting of mega steel braced frame as outer frame and composite steel plate shear walls as core wall, is a new type of hybrid structure that is proposed in this study. Seismic performance of this new structure was analyzed under frequent earthquake and severe earthquake. The analysis focused mainly on displacement response, seismic base shear distribution and failure mechanism. Comparing with traditional steel frame-RC core wall structure, this new type of hybrid structure presents better coorporative working performance since mega steel braced frame provides larger stiffness and composite steel plate shear wall provides a fairly ductile response. It can be observed from the failure mechanism that this structure has multiple seismic resistant systems with composite steel plate shear wall, mega braces and mega frame when subjected to severe earthquakes.

An experimental study was performed to investigate the structural capacity of composite steel plate walls with trilateral constrained. Six one-third-scale models of one-story prototype walls with composite steel plate shear walls were tested. The parameters for this test were the width-thickness ratio of infill steel plates and the strength of compound precast plate. Regardless of the infill plate design, the steel plate wall specimens exhibited excellent strength, deformation capacity. The design of boundary connection method is important to small width-thickness ratio of infill plates. Bolt sliding between the infill steel plates and boundary frame would decrease initial stiffness and shear strength of the steel plate shear walls. And more, this result indicates that the initial stiffness and shear strength would be improved highly with compound precast plate as resistant-lateral of infill steel plate. But the precast plate must be have sufficient strengh in design.

This paper presents numerical investigation of composite steel plate shear wall with vertical assembling mode (V-CSPSW) affecting cyclic loading. Three-dimensional finite element models are developed using ABAQUS emphasizing constitutive material modeling and element type to represent the real behavior of V-CSPSW. Validation of the FE model against the experimental results has shown a good agreement. The numerical studies were focused on the effects of gap width, bolt spacing-to-steel thickness ratio and concrete slab thickness on the V-CSPSW’s behavior. Results indicate that the gap width should less than 48mm and 72mm if the bolt spacing-to-steel thickness ratio is 100 and 125, respectively; meanwhile, the bolt spacing-to-steel thickness ratio of the V-CSPSW should less than 125 if the concrete slab possesses enough restraint stiffness.

Based on the experimental study of the partially encased composite frame-thin steel plate shear walls, it is found that the failure stages of the infilled steel plate include initial diagonal yielding, uniformed yielding, and strain hardening. By introducing the partially encased composite column, the bending-torsion failure modes of traditional steel columns are effectively improved. The failure mode of the partially encased composite column is the strength failure of plastic hinges formed at the top and bottom of the column. Based on the design concept of strong frame and weak wall panel, it determines the calculation principle of the internal force of the partially encased composite column in the uniformed yielding stage and the strain hardening stage according to the superposition principle, and proposes a design method suitable for frame column of the partially encased composite frame-thin steel plate shear walls. The finite element simulation shows that the design method can effectively predict the failure modes and the locations of the plastic hinges of the bottom compressed column, which can provide theoretical basis for reasonable design of boundary frame column in steel plate shear walls.