Expeditious strip model for steel plate shear walls with beam-connected web plates

Abstract

Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) are a robust lateral force-resisting system used in earthquake-prone regions due to their high lateral strength and stiffness as well as stable hysteretic characteristics. One of the configurations of SPSWs is SPSWs with beam-connected web plates (B-SPSWs) in which web plates are connected to beams only to reduce the flexural demands in the columns emerging due to anchoring of the tension field forces in web plates. One of the modeling approaches used to simulate the cyclic behavior of beam-connected web plates in B-SPSWs is the strip model in which web plates are modeled using a series of identical diagonal truss members. Previous research suggested use of at least 10 strips to capture the boundary frame demands in B-SPSWs; however, use of 10 or more strips significantly increases the computational effort. In this study, an expeditious strip model is proposed for beam-connected web plates in which only three strips are used. Instead of adopting identical strips, the cross-sectional area of each strip is arranged such that the boundary frame demands can be estimated accurately. The proposed model is validated against available test data in literature and compared with the other strip models of beam-connected web plates. The results of the study indicate that the proposed model is the superior one as it can capture the cyclic response of beam-connected web plates and boundary frame demands as well as reduce the computation time.