Numerical study on seismic behaviour of buckling-restrained steel plate shear walls

Buckling-restrained steel plate shear walls have been developed that can markedly alleviate the shortcomings of ordinary steel plate shear wall systems. A parametric study was carried out on finite-element models of buckling-restrained steel plate shear walls, to which cyclic and non-linear static analyses in accordance with the ATC-24 loading protocol were applied. Based on the results acquired from the hysteretic curves, an increase in concrete compressive strength does not markedly affect the ductility and energy dissipation capacity. Moreover, it was observed that as the width of the gap between the concrete panel and steel plate grew, energy dissipation and the response modification factor were reduced. In addition, the results indicated that an increase in the concrete compressive strength improved both shear capacity and initial stiffness. Accordingly, based on a comparison between the rate of improvement in shear capacity arising from an increase in strength of the concrete panels, frame and steel plate, it is concluded that it would be much more rational to increase the concrete strength so that greater shear capacity could be achieved.