Unstiffened steel plate shear wall performance under cyclic loading

In the last few decades, steel plate shear walls have been introduced as primary lateral load resisting elements in several buildings around the world. This paper presents research from a study on the performance of unstiffened thin steel plate shear walls for medium- and high-rise buildings. In this concept, the postbuckling strength of the panels is relied upon for most of the frame shear resistance, similar to the slender web of a plate girder. Experimental testing was conducted on two single- and one four-story steel shear wall specimens, under cyclic quasi-static loading. Each specimen consisted of a single bay with column-to-column and floor-to-floor dimensions of 900 mm, representing a quarter-scale model of a typical office building core. Identification of load-deformation characteristics and the stresses induced in the structural components were the primary objectives of the testing program. Good energy dissipation and displacement ductility capacities were achieved. Primary inelastic damage modes included yielding of the infill plates combined with column yielding in the single-panel tests and yielding of the columns for the multistory frame. The experimental results were compared with simplified tension field analytical models, based on recommendations in the Canadian code for limit-states design of steel structures. The models, in general, provided good predictions of the postyield strength of the specimens, with less satisfactory results for elastic stiffness calculations. From the experimental and analytical results, the adequacy of existing design guidelines were assessed.