Strength design of prefabricated corrugated steel plate shear walls under combined compression and shear loads

Abstract

The prefabricated corrugated steel plate shear wall (PCSPSW) embedded within the frames is composed of one corrugated steel plate (CSP) and two vertical boundary elements (VBEs). Both axial compression and shear loads are inevitable in designing PCSPSWs with vertical corrugation in practical engineering. However, almost no research has been conducted on the strength design of PCSPSWs under combined axial compression and shear loads. This paper investigates the load-bearing mechanism and strength design formulas of PCSPSWs under combined axial compression and shear loads. Firstly, the elastic buckling load of the CSP under axial compression is theoretically derived using the orthotropic plate theory. Then the ultimate load-bearing strength factor of the CSP, φs, only under axial compression is established by introducing the revised normalized height-to-thickness ratio of the CSP, λns, which is related to the compressive elastic buckling load. Thus the compressive load-bearing capacity of the PCSPSW could be obtained by superimposing the contribution of the CSP and VBEs. Subsequently, a parametric study is performed to establish the ultimate load-bearing capacity of the PCSPSW under combined compression and shear loads through the correlation curve of N/Nu-V/Vu. The obtained results show that the normalized slenderness ratio λsc of the CSP could significantly affect the correlation curve. Finally, the weaker constraints provided by fishplates are involved in the analysis, and accordingly the prediction formulas for considering the weaker constraints are proposed. Then this complete design method can provide valuable fundamentals for predicting the load-bearing capacity of PCSPSWs in practical engineering applications.