Case Study on Retrofit of Steel Plate Shear Walls Using Low Yield Point Steel Infill Plates

Abstract

Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) have been frequently used in seismic design and retrofit of buildings over the past three decades or so. Employment of infill plates made of low yield point (LYP) steel with considerably low yield stress and high elongation capacity is believed to provide the possibility in order to improve the structural and seismic characteristics of such lateral force-resisting systems. Among the various benefits is the early yielding of LYP steel infill plates, which can result in greater energy absorption capacity and limitation of the plastic deformation demand to the surrounding frame structure. On this basis, a case study is performed using numerical simulations and reported in this paper on the seismic retrofit of SPSWs using LYP steel infill plates of double thickness. It is shown that the retrofit of a steel shear wall using a LYP steel infill plate of double thickness can result in desirable plate-frame yielding sequence and interaction. Moreover, this retrofit strategy can improve the initial stiffness, buckling stability, and energy dissipation capacity of the existing SPSW system.