A Numerical Investigation on the Limitations of Design Equations for Steel Plate Shear Walls

In previous studies various design issues on steel plate shear wall (SPSW) systems under lateral loading were investigated using analytical and experimental methods. However, these studies tried to examine the interactive effect of only a few of design parameters, such as panel aspect ratio, column flexibility parameter, axial load ratio on the boundary frame columns, web plate thickness, stiffness of horizontal and vertical boundary elements and top anchor beam, etc., on the drift capacity and shear force distribution among frame and panel components of SPSWs at a time. This study investigates the effect of all of these parameters in the same framework. A parametric study is conducted on finite element models of 292 3-story SPSWs with rigid beam-to-column connections and designed for specified parameters. By evaluating failure forms from finite element analyses, the limiting (undesired) cases resulting from different combinations of specified geometric properties are identified. A column flexibility factor of 2.2 is proposed instead of the current limit value of 2.5 for satisfactory column performance, improved drift capacity and balanced strength distribution among frame and panel of SPSW. The value of 0.75 for the ratio of plate shear force to total shear force has emerged as a critical threshold value for the strength distribution among plate and frame components in order to conform capacity design principles. This study provides a comprehensive look on the behavior of SPWS for determining the most suitable combination of various parameters in the design of SPSW structures.