Experimental study and numerical analysis of shear behavior of ultrathin stiffened steel plate shear walls

In ultrathin stiffened steel plate shear walls, the traditional welding process may lead to serious welding deformation due to the rather small thickness of the plate. To address this issue, a new welding process is needed, in which the steel plate wall is broken at the location of the stiffener and then welded and combined to form a stiffener. In order to study the shear behavior of ultrathin stiffened steel plate shear walls adopting the new welding process, this paper presented experiments of full-scale specimens, whose shear failure pattern, hysteretic properties, load-carrying capacity and energy dissipation capacity were studied. It was verified that the new joint construction and the welding process used in the vertical stiffener can meet the requirements of shear capacity, and the influence of different steel column sections and wall width-to-height ratios on the shear resistance of steel walls were compared. The results indicate that the steel plate can meet the requirements of shear capacity and has a stable energy dissipation capacity. With the increase of size of steel column section, the lateral stiffness and bearing capacity increase, while the ultimate displacement and energy dissipation decrease. With the decrease of wall width-to-height ratio, the lateral stiffness, yield capacity and peak bearing capacity of steel plate walls decrease correspondingly, and the corresponding ultimate displacement and energy dissipation capacity increase. The general finite element analysis software ANSYS was used to simulate the shear behavior of ultrathin stiffened steel plate shear walls adopting the new welding process. The finite element results are in good agreement with the experimental results, and exactly simulate the full load-carry process and failure mode of ultrathin stiffened steel plate shear walls. © 2020, Editorial Office of Journal of Building Structures. All right reserved.