Analysis of composite steel plate shear walls connected with frame beams only

A composite steel plate shear wall system consists of a steel plate shear wall with reinforced concrete panels attached to one side or both sides by bolts or connectors. This arrangement restrains the possible occurrence of out-of-plane buckling of thin-walled steel plate, thus significantly increasing the load-carrying capacity and ductility of the overall wall. Experimental studies on composite steel plate shear walls and steel plate shear walls connected with frame beams were carried out. The experimental results illustrated the good ductility and excellent energy dissipation capacity of composite steel plate shear walls. The load-carrying capacity and energy dissipation capacity of steel plate shear walls clearly increased compared with those of steel plate shear walls. Meanwhile, a finite-element model was developed to analyse the behaviour of steel plate shear walls and composite steel plate shear walls, and its accuracy was validated by making comparisons with the experimental results. Based on the finite-element analysis results, a simplified model of steel plate shear walls was proposed, and it is suggested that this can be used in the analysis of shear wall systems in high-rise buildings.