Seismic behaviours of SCS sandwich shear walls using J-hook connectors

Abstract

This paper firstly proposed steel-concretes-steel sandwich walls with J-hook connectors (SCSWJs) as protective structures in the Arctic offshore platforms. Followed, six large scale SCSWJs were tested under lateral cyclic loading to investigate their lateral seismic behaviours. The investigated parameters in the testing program included spacing of J-hook, concrete core strength, thickness of steel faceplate, and aspect ratio. Seismic behaviours of SCSWJs were reported in details, and the effects of these parameters on their seismic behaviours were reported and discussed. The test results showed that the SCSWJ failed in flexure mode with characteristics of tensile yielding of side plate and steel faceplate, concrete crushing at the bottom toe, and outward local buckling of steel faceplates. Pinching effect was observed in the load versus lateral drift curves after the peak load due to premature local buckling of side plates and faceplates locating between the first and second row of J-hook from the bottom. This paper developed analytical models to predict the peak lateral resistance of SCSWJ. The validations against 12 results from six cyclic tests confirmed that the developed models offered reasonable but conservative predictions on the peak lateral resistance of SCSWJ. This study promotes the applications of the SCSWJ in the earthquake-prone Arctic regions.