Seismic behavior of steel-sheathed cold-formed steel shear walls with reinforced end columns

Abstract

In this study, we investigated six full-scale, steel-sheathed, cold-formed steel shear walls (CFS-SWs), three of which were CFS-SWs with reinforced end columns (CFS-SW-Rs), under reversed-cyclic loading and analyzed their damage modes and mechanical properties. Tests were conducted to compare the seismic performance between the CFS-SWs and CFS-SW-Rs and investigate the effects of the horizontal steel bands and aspect ratio on the seismic behavior of the CFS-SWs, and the effects of the thickness of the steel plates, and the aspect ratio on the seismic behavior of CFS-SW-R. According to the results, CFS-SW-Rs exhibited better seismic performance than CFS-SWs. Specifically, the CFS-SW-R benefited from the high strength and stiffness of the square steel tube end columns that could effectively restrain the thin steel plate, such that the tension band formed by the thin steel plate could be fully expanded. In addition, the shear capacity of CFS-SWs was improved by increasing the number of horizontal steel bands and the aspect ratio, the shear capacity of CFS-SW-Rs was also improved by increasing the aspect ratio and thickness of the sheathing plate.