Lateral behavior and PFI model of sinusoidal corrugated steel plate shear walls

Abstract

This study focused on the lateral behavior of sinusoidal corrugated steel plate shear walls (CoSPSWs), which consist of a steel boundary frame and sinusoidal corrugated infill wall plates. Firstly, eigenvalue buckling analyses were conducted on sinusoidal corrugated wall plates under pure shear, and local as well as global shear buckling stress formulas were proposed. Nonlinear pushover analyses were then conducted on sinusoidal corrugated steel plate shear walls with different corrugation configuration, corrugation direction as well as influences from gravity loads. The results show that the lateral behavior of sinusoidal corrugated wall plates is obviously affected by the corrugation configuration and gravity load effects, but not much by the corrugation direction. Based on the shear slenderness ratio, sinusoidal corrugated wall plates could be classified into stocky, moderate and slender walls, with lateral load-resisting mechanism corresponding to shear yielding, inelastic shear buckling, and elastic shear buckling followed by incomplete tension field action, respectively. CoSPSWs with stocky wall plates tend to have both good lateral capacity and ductility, CoSPSWs with moderate wall plates would still have good lateral capacity but lower ductility, and CoSPSWs with slender wall plates would have good ductility but lower lateral capacity. Shear strength formulas were proposed for horizontal corrugated wall plates, not affected by gravity loads due to accordion effects, as well as vertical corrugated wall plates considering the gravity load effects. Plate-frame interaction (PFI) models were also proposed for horizontal and vertical CoSPSWs considering the gravity load effects.