Seismic behavior of a novel RSSC-SPSW: An experimental and numerical study

Abstract

Self-centering steel plate shear walls (SC-SPSWs) offer superior seismic properties if properly designed. This paper deals with experimental and numerical studies of Ring-shaped Self-Centering Steel Plate Shear Walls (RSSC-SPSWs). For this purpose, a SC-SPSW specimen previously tested up to a drift of 2.5% by Clayton et al. (2012) was selected, verified in the Abaqus environment, and simulated in the same software package to obtain 23 numerical models by cyclically changing the thickness, topology, and steel type of the web plate. One model, exhibiting a better seismic performance than the control was chosen for constructing a 2/3-scale experimental specimen that was subjected to a lateral cyclic loading regime. Results revealed that the RSSC-SPSW specimen proved energy dissipation and peak strength by 2.6 and 3.0 times, respectively, higher than those recorded for the control. It was also observed that, despite its increased web plate thickness, the specimen retained its self-centering behavior, which was attributed to the fact that neither did the web plate fail nor did its strength decline throughout the experiment. Finally, the numerical model of the experimental specimen was simulated cyclically up to a drift of 5% in the Abaqus software to study the failure model, buckling, and necking, which verified an acceptable agreement between the predicted and experimental results.