Research On The Behavior And Design Methods Of Unsiffened Thin Steel Plate Shear Wall

Steel plate shear wall(short for SPSW) is being applied in the lateral resistantstructure system of high-rise building and promoted to thin SPSW by taking use of thepost-buckling strength, due to its large initial lateral stiffness, good seismic behaviorand quick construction. Now, there have been some design specifications about takinguse of the post-buckling strength for unstiffened SPSW, such as America design code“AISC-3412005”, America design guide for SPSW and Canada “CAN/CSA-S16-01”.There are also some design specifications for SPSW in China code, while, taking use ofthe post-buckling strength was not considered in its design principle, which was tooconservative. As the research tendency is more and more trending to the seismicdissipation by tension field formed after the SPSW buckled, the deficiency of existeddesign code for thin SPSW design restrained its amplification. Therefore, furtherinvestigatation of the design method for thin SPSW by taking use of its post-bucklingstrength should be carried out, so as to promote the application of such new structuresystem with good seismic behavior.In order to investigate the behavior of the unstiffened thin SPSW under lateral loadand propose the system design methods for taking use of its post-buckling strength,theoretical analysis and experiments have been carried out in this paper, based on which,the finite element analysis(short for FEA) was mainly used for the analysis of its shearcapacity, decline of lateral stiffness, tension field, non-linear behavior and the stiffnessof boundary column and beam. The main research work covered in this paper includes:(1)The design methods of different countries and the design shear capacity ofunstiffened thin SPSW based on the experimental results were analyzed and compared.(2)The monotonic loading experimental study was carried out to investigate thebehavior under lateral load, including4unstiffened SPSW specimens which are3storeyand scale of1:3. The experiment finite element model was established in ANSYS tosimulate its behavior and results, by which the accuracy and effectiveness taking use ofthe FEA method were proved.(3)According to FEA method, parameters analysis of thefactors which mainly influence the shear capacity of the unstiffened SPSW includingheight-thickness ratio λ and span-height ratio L/h were carried out.(4)The study on thedesign method and construction requirements of unstiffened thin SPSW under normaluse and infrequent earthquake were carried out based on the FEA results. Main conclusions derived from above experimental and analysis work are asfollows:(1) Experimental research has shown that the unstiffened thin SPSW subjectedto horizontal load buckled early, which showed non-linear performance and had highercapacity after buckled. Comparative analysis of design specifications based onexperimental results also verified the deficiency of the existing code for unstiffened thinSPSW design in China.(2) The FEA model established in this paper can accuratelysimulate the related lateral resistant behaviors of unstiffened thin SPSW in a certainextent under horizontal load.(3) The stiffness requirements for the boundary columnand beam of unstiffened thin SPSW were proposed, whose validity was verified fromthe perspective of energy dissipation demand and seismic requirements.(4) Thepractical design methods and construction requirements were proposed from the wallmanufacture imperfection to the normal use and infrequent earthquake, which can wellmatch the FEA results and be convenient for designer using the existing designsoftware.