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Seismic performance of composite steel plate reinforce concrete shear wall

Junming Zhou1, Y. L. Mo2, Xianghong Sun3, Jie Li4

1
Department of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai,
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200092, China; PH(86) 65981505; email: zhoujunming2001@163.com

2
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Houston,
Houston, USA; email: yilungmo@egr.uh.edu
3
College of Civil Engineering, Chang’an University; email: xianghongsun@163.com
4
Department of Civil Engineering, Tongji University; email: lijie@mail.tongji.edu.cn

ABASTRACT
Since its high stiffness and deformability, composite steel plate shear walls
are widely used in civil projects, especially the high-rise buildings. It can be utilized
by either laying a concrete layer connected to the steel plate by shear studs or
bonding a Fiber Reinforced Polymer sheet. With the Cyclic Softened Membrane
Model based finite element program, the seismic performance of four kinds of
reinforced concrete shear walls bonded by steel plates were studied. The effect of
thickness of shear wall, reinforcement ratio of shear wall, thickness of steel plate and
the spacing of shear studs were considered. Analytical result indicates that,
comparing to the thickness and reinforcement ratio of shear walls, the thickness of
steel plate and the spacing of shear studs have more effect to the shear force capacity
and ductility of shear walls. In addition, the diameter of shear studs were also can be
calculated to make sure the perfect connection between wall panel and steel plate.
INTRODUCTION
Composite construction of steel and concrete offers significant advantages for use as
the primary lateral resistance systems in building structures subjected to seismic
loading, and Composite Steel Plate Shear Wall (CSPSW) is one of the most
concentrated one.
Composite walls systems in particular offer outstanding advantages as lateral
resistance systems in areas ranging from low to high seismicity. These include ease
of construction through use ductile wall system details that potentially offer less
congestion of reinforcing bars than in RC frames; ability to use the walls as
architectural partitions in a wide range of configurations; high initial stiffness to help
reduce drift; good damping characteristics; and potentially easier repairs after
moderate damage through using epoxy on the cracked wall (Jerome et al., 2002).
Over the past decade a substantial amount of research has been conducted worldwide
on a wide range of CSPSW. A series steel shear walls without stiffening were tested
under monotonic and cyclic loadings by Timler and Kulak (1983), Kulak (1991) and
Driver et al.(1998). Their results showed good ductility and high lateral strength of
this system. Within the limits of the tests, the absorbed energy was increased with

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deflection. Two samples of three-story 1/3-scale ordinary steel and composite shear
walls were studied by Astaneh-Asl (1998, 2000, 2001) showing that the concrete
layer produces a better distribution of stress in the steel plate, developing tension
field lines in a wider region. Driver et al. (2002) conducted an experimental program
to evaluate the ability of classical plate theory to predict the buckling of the face
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plates. Tests were performed on a series of web panels that simulate a portion of a
girder web subjected to flexural compressive stresses. The experimentally
determined buckling loads were used to validate the plate's theory. Bruneau (2002)
and Bhagwagar (2004) conducted a nonlinear study to investigate how structural
behavior is affected when a thin infill of steel, low-yield steel, or shear-fill fabrics are
used. Ryu et al. (2005) performed an experimental study on a full-scale model of a
steel and concrete composite plate girder with prefabricated slabs under hogging
moments, in order to study crack control. Alinia (2005, 2006) studied the effect of
surrounding members on the overall behavior of thin steel plate shear walls. His
results show that, unlike the results of Ryu et al. (2005), the flexural stiffness of the
surrounding members has no significant effect on elastic shear buckling or the
post-buckling behavior of the shear walls.
Although a large number of buildings have been built using CSPSW as well as the
enormous research on it, the seismic design methods are still not mature and rarely
considered in the existing codes (Rahai et al., 2009). In the present paper, with the
Cyclic Softened Membrane Model based finite element program, the seismic of
different CSPSWs will be analyzed under the cyclic load. The effect of thickness of
reinforced concrete shear wall, the reinforcement ratio of RC shear wall, the
thickness of steel plate and the spacing of shear studs will be considered.
TEST AND SIMULATION OF RC SHEAR WALLS
Four different shear walls were tested by Zhong et al.(2005) to evaluate the seismic
performance of shear walls in consideration of the effect of steel grid orientation. In
this article, one of these shear walls is selected for analysis.
The wall dimensions were 4300 mm by 2800 mm with a thickness of 120 mm. The
cross section of the boundary columns was 240 mm square as shown in Figs. 1. In
the lower one-third part of the wall, 0.25% steel was provided in 65 degrees and 115
degrees to the horizontal, respectively, and 0.25% steel was provided in horizontal
and vertical directions, respectively. In the upper two-third part, 0.5% steel was
provided in to the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. The details of
reinforcement of the specimens are also shown in Fig.1.

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P/8 P/4 P/4 P/4 P/8

Nolinear
BeamColumn
Element
Quadrilateral
RCPlaneStress
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Element

Fig. 1 Dimensions and steel Fig.2 Finite element mesh of the shear
arrangement of specimen (Unit: mm) wall
Finite element analyses were conducted on the shear wall. The specimen was modeled
by the finite element mesh, as shown in Fig. 2. The wall panel was simulated by
RCPlaneStress quadrilateral elements, which are developed based on Cyclic Softened
Membrane Model (CSMM) (Mansour, 2005(a), (b); Mo, 2008). The boundary
columns and beams are modeled as NonlinearBeamColumn elements, which are the
existing element types in OpenSees.
The reversed cyclic horizontal loads were applied by a predetermined displacement
control scheme. Nodal displacements and corresponding horizontal forces were
recorded at each converged displacement step, and the stress and strain of the
elements were also monitored.
Experimental and analytical results of the shear force-drift displacement of the shear
wall is shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen that good agreements were obtained for the
precracking stiffness, postcracking stiffness, ultimate strength, residual displacement,
and energy dissipation. The hysteretic behavior provided accurate measurements of
the pinching effect, the residual displacements, the ductility and the energy dissipation
capacity.
ANALYSIS OF STEEL PLATE RC SHEAR WALLS
The composite steel plate shear walls are analyzed also with the CSMM-based finite
element program. The steel plate is simulated by four nodes membrane elements with
the material named J2 Plasticity Material which is the existing material type in
Opensees. The shear studs connecting the RC panel and steel plate are simulated by
the command “equalDOF”, which will make the nodes of RC panel and steel plate
elements with the identical coordinates have the same motion. In the following
analysis, the effect of shear wall thickness, the reinforcement ratio of shear wall, the
thickness of steel plate and the spacing between shear studs are considered.

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Fig. 3 Analytical and experimental load-displacement curves

Effect of the RC panel
In the composite steel plate RC shear wall system, the RC shear wall not only can
prevent the buckling of steel plate, but also can bear the vertical load as well as the
horizontal load. In this paragraph, the thickness of RC shear wall varies from 120mm,
240mm, 480mm to 960mm. Fig. 4 (a) and (b) shows the force-displacement curves of
these RC shear walls with 12.7mm (0.5 in.) and 25.4mm (1.0 in.) thick steel plate
respectively, and other properties of these two groups shear walls are totally the same.
For the comparison, the force-displacement curves of steel plate shear wall without
RC panel (thickness is 0mm) are also shown in the figure. The bearing capacities of
these shear walls are shown in Table 1.

(a) 12.7 mm(0.5 in.) (b) 25.4 mm(1.0 in.)

Fig. 4 Load-displacement curves with different thickness of RC panel
Comparing to Fig. 3, it can be seen from Fig.4 that, the bearing capacity, ductility and
energy dissipation of composite shear walls are obviously better than the normal RC
shear walls without steel plate. From Table 1, it is noted that, when the thickness of
RC shear wall is 0mm, and the bearing capacity of CSPSW is barely from the
contribution of steel plate. Therefore, the contribution of RC shear wall to the system
is relatively small, especially when the thickness is less than 480mm, which means, in
the composite shear wall, the role of RC shear wall is mainly on vertical load,
preventing the buckling of steel plate and out-plane load, rather than horizontal load.

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Table 1 Bearing capacities of CSPSWs (kN)

Thickness Steel plate Steel plate
Reinforcement
of RC shear
12.7 mm 25.4 mm ratio 12.7 mm 25.4 mm
wall (mm)
0 2562.27 3986.07 0% 3324.20 5318.02
120 2930.36 4343.26 0.25% 4430.00 6348.87
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240 3265.41 4718.50 0.5% 5376.02 7330.00

480 3819.47 5440.09 1% 7293.98 8883.24
960 4542.29 6410.00 - - -
Effect of the reinforcement ratio of RC shear wall
In this part, the reinforcement ratio of RC shear wall varies from 0%, 0.25%, 0.5% to
1%. Here, the reinforcement ratio 0% means, the shear wall is the pure concrete shear
wall without reinforcement, and reinforcement ratio 0.25% is the designed value of
the original shear wall. Fig.5(a) and (b) show the force-displacement curves of these
RC shear walls with 12.7mm (0.5 in.) and 25.4mm (1.0 in.) thick steel plate
respectively without changing any other properties. The bearing capacities of these
shear walls are also shown in Table 1.

(a) 12.7 mm(0.5 in.) (b) 25.4 mm(1.0 in.)

Fig. 5 Load-displacement curves with different reinforcement ratios of RC panel
Comparing Fig.5 (a) and (b), it can be seen that, the reinforcement ratio has much
more effect to the composite shear wall with 12.7mm thick steel plate than that with
25.4mm thick steel plate. As shown in Table 1, to the composite shear wall with
12.7mm thick steel plate, when the reinforcement ratio is 1%, the increment of
bearing capacity is 119.4% comparing to the case of reinforcement ratio of 0%.
However, to the composite shear wall with 25.4mm thick steel plate, the increment is
only 67.3%. On contrast, as well as the thickness of RC panel, the variation of
reinforcement ratio has less effect to the ductility of CSPSWs than to the bearing
capacity, which means the ductility of CSPSW is mostly governed by the steel plate
not the RC panel.
Effect of the thickness of steel plate
In this paragraph, the composite shear walls with 120mm and 914mm RC panel are
analyzed, and to each shear walls the thickness of steel plate varies from 0mm, 5mm,
10mm, to 20mm. Fig. 6 shows the force-displacement curves of these shear walls, and
the bearing capacities of these shear walls are shown in Table 2.

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(a) 120mm (b) 914mm(36 in.)

Fig. 6 Load-displacement curves with different thickness of steel plate
To be noted, the thickness of steel plate is 0mm means such shear wall is the normal
shear wall without steel plate. As shown in Fig. 6, no matter to which thickness of RC
panel, the bearing capacity of the composite shear wall increases dramatically with
the steel plate thickening. To the shear wall with 120mm RC panel, the shear capacity
increases 232.8% when the thickness of steel plate varies from 0mm to 20mm, and to
the shear wall with 914mm RC panel, the increment is 128.5%. On the other hand,
especially to the shear wall with 120mm RC panel, the energy dissipation is improved
obviously by the steel plate, and the pinching effect also most disappears even the
thickness of steel plate is only 5mm.
Table 2 Bearing capacities of CSPSWs (kN)
Thickness RC shear wall Steel plate
of steel Shear studs
120 mm 914 mm 12.7 mm 25.4 mm
plate (mm)
No steel
0 1078.12 2460.67 1065.67 1065.67
plate
5 1980.00 3404.90 Four nodes 3150.00 3847.08
10 2485.44 4191.48 Half nodes 3838.38 4800.00
20 3588.23 5628.39 Full nodes 4524.29 6339.87
Effect of the spacing of the shear studs
Normally, in the composite shear wall, the steel plate is connected to RC panel by
adhesive or by shear studs. Comparing to adhesive, shear stud is more durable and
easier for construction. In this part, the same shear wall with 12.7mm and 25.4 mm
thick steel plate are studied, and the effect of the spacing of shear studs is considered.
The analysis includes four cases: normal shear walls without steel plate; four corner
nodes of steel plate are connected to RC panel, which means the horizontal and
vertical spacing of shear studs are 2800mm and 4200mm respectively; half number of
nodes of steel plate are connected to RC panel (Fig. 7), which means the horizontal
and vertical spacing of shear studs are both 1400mm; the whole nodes of steel plate
are connected to RC panel, which means the horizontal and vertical spacing of shear
studs are both 700mm. Fig. 8 shows the force-displacement curves of these shear
walls, and the bearing capacities of these shear walls are shown in Table 2.

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31 32 33 34 35

26 27 28 29 30

21 22 23 24 25

16 17 18 19 20
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11 12 13 14 15

6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5

Fig. 7 Distribution of shear studs of the case of half nodes

(a) 12.7mm (0.5 in.) (b)25.4mm (1.0 in.)

Fig.8 Load-displacement curves with different spacing of shear studs
From Fig.8, it can be found, the bearing capacity of CSPSWs increases with the
spacing of shear studs reducing. To the RC shear wall with 12.7mm steel plate,
comparing to the case of four corner nodes connected, when the half and whole nodes
of steel plate are connected to the RC panel, the increments of bearing capacity are
21.8% and 43.6% respectively. To the RC shear wall with 25.4mm steel plate, the
increments are 24.7% and 64.8%. It is indicated that, more shear studs will result in
higher bearing capacity. However, half nodes connecting is enough, and more shear
studs is not necessary and also will increase the cost of construction.
In the composite shear wall, one of the most important things for design is making
sure the shear studs can bear the shear force between RC panel and steel plate. In this
part, the shear forces of shear studs are also studied. The shear force of the shear studs
at the position of node 7, 8, 18 and 29 are shown in Fig. 9 with different thick of steel
plate. Table 3 shows the peak shear forces of these shear studs.

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(a) 0.5 in. (b) 1.0 in.

Fig.9 Shear forces at node 7, 8, 18 and 29
It can be seen from Fig.9 and Table 3, no matter with what thickness of steel plate, in
the four positions, the maximum shear force of shear studs always happens at node 7,
and with the elevation rising, the shear force decreases. On the other hand, at the same
elevation, the shear force of shear stud increases when it closing to the load point. By
the way, according to Table 3, the diameters of shear stud can be calculated with its
material properties, and using different diameters of shear studs also can reduce the
cost of construction.
Table 3 Peak shear force at nodes 7, 8, 18 and 29 (kN)
Thickness Node 7 Node 8 Node 18 Node 29
0.5 in. 2436.81 1364.12 920.86 741.52
1.0 in. 2617.25 2530.35 1804.86 793.98
CONCLUSION
In the present paper, the seismic performance of composite steel plate RC shear wall
is studied. The effect of the thickness of RC panel, the reinforcement ratio of RC
panel, the thickness of steel plate and the spacing of shear studs are considered. It is
concluded that, the composite shear wall has very good seismic performance,
including high bearing capacity, high ductility and good energy dissipation.
Comparing to the RC panel, the steel plate has more contribution to the performance
of CSPSW. The thickness of the steel plate can improve the bearing capacity of
CSPSW obviously as well as the spacing of shear studs, and the diameters of shear
studs should be calculated with the variation of the spacing of shear studs.
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