Numerical Calibration of Experimental Tests on Perforated Steel Plate Shear Walls: Influence of the Tightening Torque in the Plate-Frame Members Bolted Connections.

Based on experimental tests recently performed, this paper presents a numerical investigation on Steel Plate Shear Walls (SPSWs) in order to examine the influence of the tightening torque to be assigned to bolted connections between the plate and the boundary frame members on their seismic response. In fact, in SPSWs slippage in the bolted connections and plate yielding adjacent to the boundary members decrease the system stiffness more than that detected with welded connections. For this reason, the experimental cyclic tests performed at the Urmia University on one full and two perforated (with two different circular opening ratios) panels have been assumed as reference for setup of a numerical FEM model implemented through the ABAQUS finite element software. Numerical non-linear static analyses by varying the values of tightening torques used in the bolted joints between the panels and the frame members have been performed to achieve the pushover curves able to approximate the skeleton curves of experimental cyclic tests. The experimental-numerical comparisons have shown an excellent agreement in terms of both initial stiffness and maximum lateral strength. The gotten encouraging results allow to consider the variation of the tightening torque in bolted connections as a promising solution for improving the initial stiffness and shear capacity of SPSWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]