Proposition of an equivalent reduced thickness for composite steel plate shear walls containing an opening

The composite steel plate shear wall (CSPSW) is a relatively new structural system which attracted many researchers in recent years. The main idea for developing the CSPSW system is to improve out-of-plain strength of steel plate shear walls by addition of one or two layers of concrete. This configuration provides high strength and acceptable ductility for this system in comparison with the other lateral load bearing systems. Sometimes due to architectural considerations, it is required to include openings in the shear walls. These openings change performance of the CSPSW and reduce its strength and stiffness. Moreover, inclusion of openings offers difficulty in analysis and design of the CSPSW system. The main goal of this study is to develop accurate numerical models to analyze CSPSW containing opening. Based on the obtained result and using an evolutionary algorithm named Multi-Expression Programming (MEP), an empirical relation is proposed to calculate equivalent reduced thickness to be used in the analysis of the CSPSW instead of incorporating the opening in the developed models. Accuracy of the developed model and the proposed relation are verified experimentally. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.