Seismic Performance of Composite Steel Plate Shear Walls(CSPSW) Containing Two Openings

The use of shear walls with various materials, including reinforced concrete, steel, and composite as a lateral-force-resisting system is common in high- and low-rise buildings. Until 30 years ago, reinforced concrete shear walls were widely used in buildings. During the last two decades, however, extensive studies and researches have been done on determining the performance of steel and composite steel plate shear walls, which has led to the increase in the use of these innovative systems in new structures and retrofitting of existing buildings. In this study, the performance of composite steel plate shear walls (CSPSW) with two openings was numerically studied. The numerical results were compared with the previous experimental studies. To evaluate the effects of openings in the performance of CSPSW, various numerical specimens were modeled. The studied parameter was the position of openings, including the upper, middle, and lower of the shear walls with 10, 20, 30, and 40% of the entire walls’ area. The results indicated that specimens without openings had the highest initial stiffness as the CSPSW with two openings had the lowest. As the area of the openings decreased, the initial stiffness and ultimate shear capacity increased. In addition, as the area of openings increased, the ultimate shear capacity decreased. Also, the results showed that the position of openings had a negligible effect on the behavior of the CSPSW. The concrete layer in CSPSW played an essential role in increasing the ultimate shear capacity of the CSPSW.