INVESTIGATION ON LATERAL BEHAVIOR OF CORRUGATED STEEL PLATE SHEAR WALLS WITH OPENINGS OR SLITS

In place of traditional on-site construction, modular steel construction (MSC) is an excellent alternative and it is gaining popularity. The innovative construction method possesses higher construction speed and quality by moving large proportion of the building to be manufactured in the factory, which is favarable to environmental protection. Schools, hotels, and apartments have widely adopted modular steel construction as its convenience for transportation. This paper mainly focused on the lateral behavior of corrugated steel plate shear walls (CSPSWs) with openings or slits in container-like modular steel construction. A 3D finite element model (FEM) was established and validated against the test results. The failure process of the CSPSWs with opening was revealed and discussed. Further, theoretical deduction was carried out to predict the initial lateral stiffness of CSPSWs with opening and the proposed formulas agreed well with the test and simulation results. In addition, parametric analysis was performed to reveal the lateral behavior of CSPSWs with vertical slits based on the verified FEM. It indicated that the layer and location of the vertical slit have prominent influence on the initial stiffness and ultimate load of CSPSWs. Meanwhile, in order to investigate the effect of opening location on the initial stiffness of CSPSWs with openings, a parametric study was conducted and the reasonable location of the opening was recommended. The present study provides useful design guidelines for the design of CSPSWs, which is beneficial to promoting the application of modular steel construction.