Study on the gap width between the steel plate and concrete panels on behavior of the buckling‐restrained steel plate shear walls.

The steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) are reckoned as one of the lateral load‐resisting systems with a high ductility and strength as well as a great energy dissipation capacity, which have been widely used in the recent years. One of the most important drawbacks of the SPSWs concerns their shear buckling due to which the behavioral parameters of this system is considerably undermined. To overcome this issue, the buckling‐restrained (BR) SPSWs have been developed, which have succeeded in resolving the drawbacks of the conventional SPSWs. This paper has investigated behavior of the BRSPSWs subjected to the cyclic loadings. To examine the nonlinear static behavior of the BRSPSWs, four experimental specimens including the specimen without concrete panel, the specimen with concrete panel and gap width equal to zero (directly connected to the steel plate) and the specimens with gap width 20 and 40 mm, were built in the laboratory with a scale of 1:2 and then subjected to the cyclic loadings. Afterwards, the specimens were numerically simulated considering the gap widths 0, 20 and 40 mm. After the process of verification, a parametric study was performed, in which cyclic performance of the specimens subjected to the reversed loadings according to ATC‐24 protocol was investigated. Based on the obtained results, the specimen without concrete panel has the lowest energy dissipation capacity, which is due to the local and lateral buckling. Additionally, the pinching phenomenon was significant in this specimen. In contrast, the specimens with gap width 20 and 40 mm exhibited an energy dissipation capacity six times greater than that of the specimens without panel or even gap. Moreover, it was observed that the shear capacity of the specimens with the concrete panels increased by nearly 50%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]