Journal of Constructional Steel Research 103 (2014) 179–189

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Experimental study of ring-shaped steel plate shear walls

Natalia Egorova, Matthew R. Eatherton ⁎, Abhilasha Maurya
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA 24060

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A new type of steel plate shear wall (SPSW) has been developed which resists out-of-plane buckling. The ring-
Received 2 February 2014 shaped steel plate shear wall (RS-SPSW) includes a steel web plate that is cut with a pattern of holes leaving
Accepted 2 September 2014 ring-shaped portions of steel connected by diagonal links. The ring shape resists out-of-plane buckling through
Available online 26 September 2014
the mechanics of how a circular ring deforms into an ellipse. It is shown that the ring’s compression diagonal
will shorten a similar amount as the tension diagonal elongates, essentially eliminating the slack in the direction
Keywords:
Steel plate shear wall
perpendicular to the tension field. Because of the unique features of the ring’s mode of distortion, the load-
Ring shape deformation response of the resulting RS-SPSW system can exhibit full hysteretic behavior and possess greatly
Hysteretic behavior improved stiffness relative to thin unstiffened SPSW. The concept has been validated through testing on seven
Plate buckling approximately 1 m × 1 m RS-SPSW panels and compared to the experimental response of a solid plate panel.
Seismic design General conclusions about the influence of different geometric parameters on plate behavior are made including
Experimentation limits on geometry that produce desirable hysteretic response.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Steel plate shear walls (SPSW) are an attractive option for earth-
quake engineering design for a variety of reasons including reduced
cost, less invasive construction, and small architectural wall thickness
relative to concrete shear walls as well as increased speed of construc-
tion and efficient use of slender wall elements (see [1] for a summary).
In the past few decades, a significant number of computational and
experimental research programs have been conducted on SPSW and
they have been implemented in buildings located in the USA, Canada,
Japan and elsewhere. Even though SPSWs have been used in practice,
there are several challenges associated with the design, construction,
and behavior of SPSW that limit their use.
The key components of a typical SPSW (see Fig. 1a) are a thin web
plate, beams which are referred to as horizontal boundary elements,
and columns also referred to as vertical boundary elements. The web
plate resists horizontal story shear through tension field action of
the web plate and dissipates seismic energy as the web plate yields
along the inclined tension field direction (e.g. [2]). Although SPSW can
develop significant post-buckling shear capacity, the web plate buckles
at small shear force which may even occur during large wind loads.
Buckling of the SPSW leads to significant loss of stiffness and a pinched
hysteretic behavior (e.g. [3]). To mitigate the negative effects associated
with SPSW web plate buckling, a surrounding moment frame is re-
quired in the U.S. building codes [4].
The ring-shaped steel plate shear wall (RS-SPSW) (see Fig. 1b) in-
cludes a unique pattern of cutouts leaving ring shapes that can mitigate
plate buckling by the mechanics of how a circle deforms into an ellipse.
The mechanics of the system were explored by Maurya et al. [5] includ-
ing computational simulation of a set of RS-SPSW panels [6]. It was
found that the RS-SPSW system has substantially improved stiffness
and energy dissipation characteristics as compared to conventional
SPSW.
The objective of this paper is to verify the RS-SPSW theoretical con-
cepts through an experimental program. Furthermore, different configu-
rations including plate thickness, number of rings, and ring geometry
were chosen to study the effect of design variables on RS-SPSW behavior,
identify potential buckling modes, provide data for validation/calibration
of computational models by others, compare measured shear capacity
with theoretical strength predications, and to explore which combina-
tions of design variables produce desirable hysteretic response.
To serve these goals, eight specimens were designed, fabricated and
subjected to reversed cyclic shear deformations. This paper describes
the basic concepts related to the RS-SPSW system, the experimental
setup and displacement protocol, as well as presenting the results and
analyzing the implications of the results for use of this system in
practice.

2. Background and RS-SPSW concept

⁎ Corresponding author at: 200 Patton Hall, Blacksburg, VA, USA, 24060. Tel.: +1 540
231 4559.
E-mail addresses: natalya1@vt.edu (N. Egorova), meather@vt.edu (M.R. Eatherton), A large number of small and large scale experiments have been per-
abhilasha.maurya@vt.edu (A. Maurya). formed on steel plate shear wall panels (see [1] for a summary). Of

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2014.09.002
0143-974X/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
180 N. Egorova et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 103 (2014) 179–189

Boundary Elements Simple Shear

Vertical Boundary Elements
Designed to Resist Large Connecons Between
Inward Pull of Web Plate Horizontal and Vercal
Horizontal Boundary Elements Boundary Elements
Fully Yielding in Tension
Field Web Plate with Ring
Shaped Cutouts Resists
Moment Connecons with Out-of-Plane Buckling
Seismic Detailing and Field
Tension Field Link
Welding
Ring
Thin Web Plate (Typically
Between 1.7 mm to 7
mm) Buckles When Diagonal Links Between
Subjected to Small Shear Rings

Fish Plates Fish Plates

(a) Convenonal Steel Plate Shear Wall (SPSW) (b) Ring-Shaped Steel Plate Shear Wall (RS-SPSW)
Fig. 1. Conventional and ring-shaped steel plate shear walls.

particular interest are tests on specimens with thin web plates, such as
the web plates as thin as 1.6 mm suggested for upper floors in design
examples [1]. It has been shown in tests that thin 1.0 mm web plates
act similar to 25 mm x 50 mm tension only braces with negligible lateral
resistance provided by the web plate during load reversal [7]. There
have been a number of attempts to improve the performance of SPSW
including use of low yield strength steel [8], corrugated steel panels
(e.g. [9]), and perforated steel plate shear walls [8]. The perforated
SPSW include a regular pattern of circular holes cut in the web plate
and are allowed in current U.S. building codes [4]. However, perforated
SPSW also develop early buckling and have limited design flexibility
because the ductile mechanism still depends on tension field action
and yielding of the web plate along tension diagonals.
On the other hand, ring shapes have been used in seismic systems to
dissipate seismic energy without buckling. Tyler [10] describes tests on
a yielding frame that dissipates energy through the yielding of round
bars that are oriented in a circular or rectangular shape and connected
to the four corners of a steel frame with diagonal braces. When the
steel frame was subjected to lateral loading, this device deformed in
such a way as to eliminate slack in the braces and thus exhibited signif-
icant energy dissipation, even during load reversal. Ciampi et al. [11]
proposed a similar class of hysteretic devices with rectangular geometry
suspended in a steel frame with diagonal tension braces to the four
corners. A modified version of the device was incorporated in one of
the buildings of the Laboratories of the National Research Council in
Frascati, Italy [11].
The RS-SPSW system proposed herein also uses the ring shape to
resist buckling. To demonstrate this concept, a single ring is considered
as shown in Fig. 2a. The perimeter of the ring, Pcircle, is given in Eq. (1)
where r is the centerline radius of the ring.
P circle ¼ 2πr
The application of a diagonal tension force transforms the circle into
an ellipse as shown in Fig. 2a. The perimeter of the ellipse is approxi-
mately given by Eq (2) as a function of the elongation of the circle in
the longitudinal tension direction, δ1, and its shortening in the trans-
verse direction, δ2. A relationship between δ1 and δ2 can then be found
by setting the perimeter of the circle equal to the perimeter of the ellipse
as given in Eq. (3) assuming the circle does not undergo any axial
stretching.
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ðr þ δ1 Þ2 þ ðr−δ2 Þ2
P ellipse ≈ 2π ð2Þ
2
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1
δ2 ¼ r− 4r 2 −4δ21 −8rδ1 ð3Þ
2
A plot of the relationship between the longitudinal elongation, δ1,
and the transverse shortening, δ2 is shown in Fig. 2c for an arbitrary
value of the ring radius. It is shown in Fig. 2c that the longitudinal elon-
gation and transverse shortening are approximately equal for values of
deformation that are small relative to the ring radius. Conversely, a solid
square steel cube undergoing small uniaxial elongation will contract in
the transverse directions, δ2, by an amount equal to the Poisson's ratio
(0.3 for steel) multiplied by the longitudinal elongation, δ1. In the inelas-
tic range, this ratio increases toward 0.5 for constant volume deforma-
tion. If shear buckling of a thin unstiffened SPSW is conceptually
viewed as occurring when there is excess material along the compres-
sion diagonal, then the shaded region of Fig. 2c represents configura-
tions prone to buckling. Unlike the solid plate, the ring shape removes
the slack in the compression diagonal direction and therefore reduces
out-of-plane buckling.
A finite element (FE) computational study was previously conducted
ð1Þ to study the RS-SPSW concept [6]. Shell element models were used with

δ2
Ring

No slack in
δ2 δ1 δ1 the Excess material in
δ2 transverse transverse direcon :
direcon Prone to buckling

Solid
Plate

δ1

(a) Ring (b) Solid Plate (c) Relaonship Between δ1and δ2

Fig. 2. Mechanics of ring shape resistance to buckling.
 N. Egorova et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 103 (2014) 179–189 181

geometrically nonlinear analysis to capture buckling. It was found MTS Model 243.60
that RS-SPSW were capable of reducing and in some cases preventing Hydraulic Actuator Shear Panel
buckling. The panels demonstrated significant improvement in energy
864 mm Specimen
dissipation and stiffness compared to solid panel SPSWs and the addi-
2 – L6x3-1/2 x ½
tional geometric parameters suggested promise in allowing response 762 mm Both Sides
parameters to be individually tuned for project specific conditions. 2 - L8x4x7/16
Two potential buckling modes were identified including global shear
Fully
buckling similar to tension field buckling of a solid plate, and lateral Pretensioned
torsional buckling of individual rings. 19 mm A325

W12x26
Analytical expressions for RS-SPSW shear strength were derived

1168 mm
W12x26
Bolts Typical

762 mm
using plastic mechanism analysis [12]. Interaction between axial forces
and flexure were neglected because the effects were generally found
to be small [6]. The first mechanism considered (shown in Fig. 3b),
assumes four plastic hinges will form at the intersection of the ring cen-
terline and the centerline of the links connecting the rings. However,
since the links have a discrete width, the plastic hinges are forced to
2 - L8x4x7/16
occur at the edges of the link as shown in Mechanism 2 (Fig. 3c). Simi-
larly, Mechanism 3 (Fig. 3d) assumes the plastic hinges form at the
edges of the link, but the ring undergoes a shear deformation rather
than elongation along the diagonal.
The shear loads (horizontal component of the diagonal force) associ- Fig. 4. Side view of the experimental setup.
ated with each mechanism were derived in Maurya [6] and are given by
Eq. (5) for Mechanism 1 and Eq. (6) for Mechanism 2 and 3 which
resulted in the same shear capacity. Both equations were based on the comparison, and performance evaluation compared to conventional
geometry of the ring shown in Fig. 5a including the centerline radius, SPSW. The economic analysis showed comparable cost between a RS-
R, the ring width, wc, the link width, wL, and the plate thickness, tw. SPSW and conventional SPSW because the RS-SPSW does not require
The plastic moment capacity, Mp, is given by Eq. (4) as a function of moment connections at the beam-to-column connections. Furthermore,
the plate yield strength, Fy. The shear capacity of a solid unstiffened machine shops with large waterjet cutting tables were found capable of
steel plate shear wall, Qsolid, as derived in multiple references (e.g. [1]), fabricating the RS-SPSW web plates suggesting that the RS-SPSW can be
is provided in Eq. (7), and is a function of the web plate clear width, fabricated and erected in practice.
Lcf, and the tension field angle, α.
3. Design of experimental study
w2 t
Mp ¼ c w F y ð4Þ A series of experiments were conducted at the Thomas M. Murray
4
Structural Engineering Laboratory at Virginia Tech to validate the RS-
pffiffiffi SPSW concept, investigate the cyclic hysteretic behavior of these panels,
2 2M p evaluate the effectiveness of a derived strength equation, and study the
Q1 ¼ ð5Þ
R potential buckling modes associated with these plate configurations.
The tests were performed on plates that were approximately one
pffiffiffi
2 2M p meter square which was large enough to test rings that might be used
Q2 ¼ Q3 ¼ w ð6Þ in full-scale structures.
R− L
2
3.1. Test setup and loading protocol
Q Solid ¼ 0:5 F y t w Lcf sinð2α Þ ð7Þ
The test setup shown in Fig. 4 was designed to apply shear deforma-
tions to the steel plate specimens. The free end shown on the left of
The application of the RS-SPSW to six-story prototype structure was Fig. 4 was displaced up and down using an MTS Model 243.60 hydraulic
investigated [13] including schematic design, fabrication issues, cost actuator with force capacity of 650 kN and 1015 kN in tension and

Locaon of
wL Plasc Hinges
f g g
e h Plasc h
d i Strength, Q1 Q2
R i d i
Mp e f
wc d Q3
j
Ro j k
c l
b k c Q3 c j
a l b a
Thickness, tw Q1diag Q2diag
(a) Ring Geometry (b) Mechanism 1 (c) Mechanism 2 (d) Mechanism 3
Fig. 3. Plastic mechanism analysis to determine shear yield capacity of the RS-SPSW.
182 N. Egorova et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 103 (2014) 179–189

Table 1 deformation of the specimen in the presence of elastic reaction frame

Displacement protocol. deformations. The displacement rate was held constant throughout
Level Target shear Target shear Target shear Number the loading at 25 mm/min.
displacement, δ displacement, distortion angle, of cycles
δ (mm) δ/a, % 3.2. Instrumentation
1 0.5 δy 2.2 0.25 3
2 0.75 δy 3.2 0.37 3 The instrumentation plan is shown in Fig. 5a including the actuator
3 1.0 δy 4.3 0.5 3
LVDT with 508 mm range and load cell with 105 kN capacity. Four
4 2 δy 8.6 1.0 3
5 3 δy 13.0 1.5 3 Celesco PT101 string potentiometers with 254 mm range were used to
6 4 δy 17.3 2.0 2 measure the in-plane displacements of the test specimen and setup.
7 5 δy 21.6 2.5 2 String potentiometer 1 shown in Fig. 5a measured the vertical displace-
8 6 δy 25.9 3.0 2 ment of the frame free end which differed slightly compared to the
9 8 δy 34.5 4.0 2
10 10 δy 43.2 5.0 2
actuator LVDT due to elastic deformations in the steel frame supporting
11 12 δy 51.8 6.0 2 the actuator. The displacements measured using string potentiometers
12 16 δy 69.1 8.0 2 2, 3, and 4 were used to compute the shear distortion angle of the
13 20 δy 86.4 10 2 web plate. The lengths of three lines were found as the string potenti-
ometer displacements added to the measured initial lengths. Geometric
laws were used to calculate the shear angle at each time step assuming
compression respectively. The fixed end, shown on the right of Fig. 4, that the axial deformation of the vertical element was negligible. The
was anchored to the strong floor. The web plate was sandwiched computed shear angles at the left and right of the specimen were then
between angles in a slip critical connection along all four edges. The averaged to produce the values reported in the results section.
double-angle boundary elements at the top and bottom were attached Photogrammetry was used to measure the out-of-plane displace-
to the vertical elements using 50 mm diameter steel pins and as such ment pattern of the web plates using a NIKON D7000 camera with
held a constant distance between the pins creating a slight arc motion NIKKON 20 mm, f/2.8 fixed focal length lens and 16.2 megapixel resolu-
of the free side. The steel plate specimens were bolted to the test tion in association with the PhotoModeler software [15]. With the pro-
frame to allow testing of multiple specimens with the same testing rig cedures used in this study (see [16]), the error is estimated to be within
although boundary connections in practice could be welded. Out-of- 0.05 mm based on previous testing [17]. The photogrammetry proce-
plane lateral bracing was provided for the actuator and at the middle dure was conducted before the test and at four times during each test
of the free end vertical element. The fixed side of the SPSW panel was to measure the initial imperfection profile, buckling mode shapes of
restrained from out-of-plane motion by minor axis flexural rigidity of the RS-SPSW, identify the onset of buckling, and quantify the magni-
the reaction frame and its connection to the strong floor. tudes of out-of-plane displacements. The photogrammetry targets
The ATC-24 loading protocol [14] was adopted assuming a shear dis- were typically placed around the inside and outside perimeter of the
tortion angle at yield, δy/a = 0.5%, to allow a consistent loading protocol rings and along the edges of the links connecting the rings.
for all specimens where, a, is the horizontal distance between pins, a =
864 mm. The target displacements, number of cycles, and shear distor- 3.3. Specimens design and fabrication
tion for each displacement level is given in Table 1. The actuator was
displacement-controlled to apply the target displacements, but after Eight specimens, described in Table 2 and shown in Fig. 6, were test-
Specimen 1, the applied actuator displacements were amplified by 1.3 ed to study the influence of geometric design parameters on the cyclic
relative to those listed in Table 1 to better obtain the target shear behavior. Some of the basic dimensions are defined graphically in

SP = String
Potenometer
Actuator
Load Cell Photogrammetry
and LVDT Targets on Back
Side

SP 4

SP 2 SP 3

SP 1

(a) Instrumentation Plan (b) Photograph of Test Setup

Fig. 5. Instrumentation plan and photograph of test setup. (a) Instrumentation plan. (b) Photograph of test setup.
 N. Egorova et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 103 (2014) 179–189 183

Table 2
Test matrix.

Basic dimensions Nondimensional ratios

Test # Specimen Name tw (mm) R0 (mm) wc (mm) wL (mm) N a R0 wc

tw tw tw

1 2-13-1 12.7 150 56 56.1 2 68 11.8 4.4

2 Solid Plate 1.9 - - - - 455 - -
3 1-13-1 12.7 300 112 112 1 68 23.6 8.8
4 3-13-1 12.7 100 37.3 37.3 3 68 7.9 2.9
5 2-6-0.81 6.4 150 45.7 56.1 2 136 23.6 7.2
6 2-6-1 6.4 150 56.1 56.1 2 136 23.6 8.8
7 3-6-1 6.4 100 37.3 37.3 3 136 15.7 5.8
8 3-10-1 9.5 100 37.3 37.3 3 91 10.5 3.9

tw = Plate thickness, Ro = outside ring radius, wc = width of the ring.

wL = Width of the link, and N = Number of rings per row.
Specimen name is defined as: N − tw − wc/wL.

Fig. 6 and include the panel thickness, tw, outside ring radius, Ro, width
of the circular ring, wc, width of the link, wL, number of rings per row,
N, and least pin-to-pin dimension of the plate, a = 864 mm. In the pre-
vious computational study [6], three nondimensional slenderness ratios
were proposed to be related to buckling. Global shear buckling was
shown to be related to plate slenderness, a/tw. Lateral torsional buckling
of the rings was associated with two ring slenderness parameters, Ro/tw
and wc/tw. The computational study found that the corners where the
rings and links converged resulted in a substantial stress concentration
[6]. Based on a set of models with various fillet radius, a fillet radius
equal to 20% of the outer ring radius, Ro, was found to mitigate the stress
concentration and was thus used for all specimens.
Specimens 3-13-1, 2-13-1, and 3-10-1 were designed with small
global slenderness, a/tw, and ring slenderness parameters, Ro/tw and
wc/tw, to demonstrate the least amount of buckling and most full hyster-
etic response. Specimens such as 3-6-1 possess larger global slender-
ness with relatively small ring slenderness which was expected to
711 mm Typical
237 mm
711 mm Typical
undergo global shear buckling. Conversely, specimens such as 1-13-1
have large ring slenderness and small global slenderness and are thus
designed to develop lateral torsional buckling of the ring. Specimens
were cut using a waterjet cutting machine with the highest quality cut-
ting (see Fig. 7).
A solid plate specimen with thickness, tw = 1.9 mm was considered
representative of thinner SPSW web plates used in practice. This solid
plate specimen thickness was selected to have similar shear strength
as the RS-SPSW specimens. Solid plate specimens with the same thick-
ness as the RS-SPSW specimens were not selected because their shear
strength would have been almost an order of magnitude greater and
thus would not be reasonable in practical SPSW applications.
Three tension coupon tests were conducted in accordance with
ASTM A370-07a [18] on each plate thickness with the resulting average
material properties summarized in Table 3. All plates of a given thick-
ness were obtained from the same heat.
4. Results and discussion
The results of the eight shear panel tests are presented in this section
starting with the solid plate specimen for context, the RS-SPSW that
develop plastic hinges in the rings prior to buckling, shear buckling of
the RS-SPSW panels, and lateral torsional buckling. The section ends
356 mm with a discussion of fracture potential, energy dissipation, and the accu-

racy of the shear strength prediction equation.

356 mm

wL
237 mm

4.1. Solid plate behavior

Ro wc
The cyclic shear load vs. shear distortion angle behavior of the solid
plate is shown for the small cycles in Fig. 8a and for larger cycles in
Fig. 8b. It is noted that although the actuator displacement history was

(a) Specimens 4, 7, 8 (b) Specimens 1, 5, 6

Radius of All Fillets is

20% of Ro Typical

127 mm
Radius
(c) Specimen 3 (d) Specimen 2
Fig. 7. Close-up photograph of smooth cut surface obtained using water jet cutting
Fig. 6. Test specimen geometry. (photogrammetry targets also shown).
184 N. Egorova et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 103 (2014) 179–189
Table 3
Material properties based on tension coupon tests.
Plate thickness Modulus of elasticity Yield strength Ultimate strength
(mm) (GPa) (MPa) (MPa)
13 210 331 400
1.9 200 296 365
6.4 210 317 483
9.5 203 296 434
symmetrically applied, the shear distortion of the specimen was not
fully symmetric because of uneven deformations in the reaction frame.
As expected, the thin solid panel exhibited a large stiffness of
approximately 5300 kN/% during several small displacement cycles
prior to shear buckling. A distinct change in stiffness occurred at ap-
proximately 100 kN (approximately 50% of the shear yield force), after
which a tension field was observed to develop. The unloading stiffness
was found to be approximately 650 kN/% which may be representative
of the stiffness of the panel when the tension field is fully engaged. The
stiffness dropped even further during load reversal. As shown in Fig. 8b,
the secant stiffness of the solid panel during load reversal becomes
negative as the previous tension diagonal is subjected to compression
and undergoes buckling instability. Although the specimen continued
to resist approximately 25% of the specimen shear yield force during
reloading, the secant stiffness was nearly zero until the tension field
engaged in the opposing direction. The resulting hysteretic behavior
was similar in character to tension-only bracing with highly pinched
hysteresis and negligible stiffness during load reversal. The energy dis-
sipation during the 4% drift cycle was computed, Ed, and found to be
44% of the energy that would be dissipated by an equivalent elastic
perfectly plastic system with the same peak shear force, EEPP.
Even at 0.5% shear distortion angle, the shear buckling was well
defined as shown in Fig. 9a and visually observable. Five buckling half
waves formed at an approximately 40° angle relative to horizontal
with a peak amplitude of 0.75 cm. A photograph of the buckled shape
at 5% shear distortion angle is shown in Fig. 9b at which point the
photogrammetry measurements found that the peak to peak buckling
amplitude had grown to approximately 6 cm.
For clarity, Fig. 8b shows data only up to 5% shear distortion angle,
although the test was conducted to 8% shear distortion angle (see [16]
for details). Tearing of the plate started at 6% drift at the bottom right
corner and propagated during each subsequent cycle. Tearing also
developed at a sharp fold on the interior of the plate as well as small
tearing at the other three corners. At large deformation angles, the
bolts designed to be slip critical started to slip and bearing and tear
out type failures occurred at the bolt holes. During the 8% drift cycle,
the tear along the bottom of the plate propagated substantially contrib-
uting to a significant loss in shear strength.
(a) Initial Buckling Response
Fig. 8. Hysteretic behavior of the solid plate specimen. (a) Initial buckling response. (b) Behavior up to 5% distortion angle.
4.2. Plastic hinging RS-SPSW
As discussed in a previous section, the intent of the ring shapes is to
remain relatively planar while the ring is inelastically stretched into an
ellipse. As the ring is stretched, the largest moments occur where the
ring intersects with the link and it is at these locations that a plastic
hinge was assumed to form in the derivation of the shear strength
equations. Fig. 10a shows the load-deformation response of specimen
3-13-1 which remained relatively planar as the rings underwent plastic
hinging. The stable and full hysteretic behavior is similar in character to
systems in which buckling is restrained (e.g. buckling restrained
braces). The stiffness of approximately 1300 kN/% remained fairly
constant throughout the test. Photogrammetry data showed the plate
remained relatively flat (5 mm out-of-plane displacement) through
the 1.5% shear distortion angle cycles and by the 3% shear distortion
angle cycle, the plate developed a concave deformed shape with a
3 cm amplitude although no defined tension field diagonals had formed.
The test was stopped after the first cycle at 3% shear distortion angle
due to a fracture in the reaction frame. The W12x26 vertical member
attached to the strong floor experienced a fracture through the flange
at the top pin connection, but was subsequently repaired and strength-
ened for testing of the rest of the specimens.
Specimens 2-13-1 and 3-10-1 with load-deformation behavior
shown in Fig. 10b and c, developed similar full hysteretic behavior
at the beginning of the test. The energy dissipation during the
4% drift cycle, Ed, was found to be 79% and 71% of the energy that
would be dissipated by an equivalent elastic perfectly plastic system
with the same peak shear force, EEPP, for specimens 2-13-1 and 3-
10-1 respectively. Fig. 13d shows that the inelastic regions, identi-
fied by areas on the specimen where whitewash had flaked off,
were concentrated at the intersection of the ring and the link, thus
confirming the locations of plastic hinging assumed in the plastic
mechanism model.
Specimen 2-13-1 retained full hysteretic behavior until shear buck-
ling occurred during the 4% shear distortion cycles. Specimen 3-10-1
started to experience strength degradation associated with shear buck-
ling during cycles between -2.1% and 3.7%, or 3% average shear distor-
tion angle. As shown in Fig. 10b and c, the strength degradation due to
shear buckling occurred in a gradual manner without a sudden loss of
strength or stiffness. Testing of specimen 2-13-1 was arbitrarily stopped
after two cycles at 6% shear distortion angle, but specimen 3-10-1 was
subjected to additional cycles up to 8% shear distortion during which a
fracture developed at an exterior joint between a link and ring (see
Fig. 13d). The fracture did not lead to a steep loss of shear strength as
the majority of rings remained intact.
Specimens 3-13-1, 2-13-1, and 3-10-1 all produced cyclic load-
deformation response and progression of limit states with beneficial
attributes for the seismic resistance of structures. The RS-SPSW con-
figurations prevented buckling until 3% to 4% shear distortion which
(b) Behavior up to 5% Distortion Angle
 N. Egorova et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 103 (2014) 179–189 185

(a) Buckled Shape at 0.5% Shear Distortion (b) Photograph at 5% Shear Distortion
Fig. 9. Deformed shape of the solid plate specimen. (a) Buckled shape at 0.5% shear distortion. (b) Photograph at 5% shear distortion.

are well above the 2% lateral drifts associated with the design basis
earthquake [19]. The stiffness and energy dissipation are shown to be
much larger than the solid plate SPSW. Furthermore, the shear buckling
that occurs at large drifts effectively limits the peak shear forces in
the RS-SPSW thereby controlling panel overstrength and reducing the
demands on surrounding framing.
4.3. Global shear buckling of RS-SPSW panels
Global shear buckling is further studied by examining the behavior
of Specimen 3-6-1 which had identical geometry as Specimen 3-10-1
and 3-13-1 except that it had a 6.4 mm thickness. Fig. 11a shows the ini-
tial behavior of Specimen 3-6-1 exhibited full hysteretic behavior up to
cycles between − 1.5% and 2.2% at which time the plate underwent
shear buckling and the hysteretic behavior became pinched. Fig. 12a
shows that the photogrammetry measurements conducted in the fol-
lowing cycle at −2% drift captured the buckled shape with one primary
half wave, four smaller half waves, and a peak-to-peak amplitude of
32 mm.
Unlike Specimens 2-13-1 and 3-10-1 that reached their peak shear
force at 3.1% and 2.1% shear distortion angle respectively, Specimen 3-
6-1 reached its peak shear force at 1.3% and the shear strength contin-
ued to gradually degrade after shear buckling. The test was continued
to cycles at 9% shear distortion angle as shown in Fig. 11b. As the buck-
ling was cyclically and repeatedly reversed, the plate began to form
more sharply folded buckles as shown in Fig. 12b. The buckled shape
had similar number and orientation of the half waves at 6% shear
distortion as previously, but with peak-to-peak amplitude of 57 mm.

(a) Hysteretic Behavior of 3-13-1 (b) Hysteretic Behavior of 2-13-1

Fracture

(c) Hysteretic Behavior of 3-10-1 (d) Deformed Shape of 3-10-1 at Last Peak
Fig. 10. Behavior of RS-SPSW capable of developing full plastic hinging of rings. (a) Hysteretic behavior of 3-13-1. (b) Hysteretic behavior of 2-13-1. (c) Hysteretic behavior of 3-10-1.
(d) Deformed shape of 3-10-1 at last peak.
186 N. Egorova et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 103 (2014) 179–189
(a) Beginning of the Test
Fig. 11. Behavior of specimen 3-6-1 demonstrating global shear buckling. (a) Beginning of the test. (b) Complete test data.
Eventually, the sharp creases in the plate led to tears forming at two
locations at 8% shear distortion angle.
As the rings and links undergo inelastic axial elongations, the mech-
anism whereby a ring deforming into an ellipse removes slack in the
compression diagonal loses its effectiveness. Just as moment resisting
frame connections subjected to large inelastic rotation cycles will even-
tually develop local buckles regardless of how compact the beam
section, the RS-SPSW will develop shear buckling if subjected to large
enough cycles regardless of plate slenderness. However, plate slender-
ness, defined as the plate dimension divided by the thickness, a/tw,
appears to be strongly correlated with the shear distortion angle at
buckling (see Fig. 13). The results suggest that it may be possible to
control the shear distortion angle at the onset of buckling by proper
selection of the global plate slenderness parameter, a/tw. Although it is
necessary to further validate the relationship for a range of full-scale
plate configurations, plates with a plate slenderness, a/tw b100 success-
fully limited the shear buckling to occur for drifts larger than the 2%
limit associated with the design basis earthquake hazard level [19].
4.4. Lateral torsional buckling of rings
Another important limit state for RS-SPSWs is lateral torsional buck-
ling. The hysteretic behavior of Specimen 1-13-1 is shown in Fig. 14a
with shear angle defined on the horizontal axis as actuator displace-
ment divided by the panel pin to pin width, a = 864 mm. Actuator
displacement is used for this specimen because of malfunctions in the
string potentiometer system. Specimen 1-13-1 consisted of one large
ring with the largest values of ring slenderness considered in this
study (R0/t = 23.6 and wc/t = 8.8). Based on the load-deformation
(a) -2% Shear Distortion
Fig. 12. Global shear buckling evolution for specimen 3-6-1. (a) 2% Shear distortion. (b) 6% Shear distortion.
(b) Complete Test Data
response, it appears that buckling occurred before plastic hinging
could fully develop in the rings. This was further corroborated by the
peak force which was smaller than the computed shear capacity as
tabulated later in Table 4 and discussed in a subsequent section.
Lateral torsional buckling is characterized by a twisting of the ring as
shown in Fig. 14b. Unlike shear buckling panels which can still resist
additional shear force through a tension field type of mechanism, the
specimens that undergo lateral torsional buckling suffer more substan-
tial strength degradation. The energy dissipation ratio was found to be,
Ed/EEPP = 46% approximately equal to that of the solid plate. Because of
the potential for large strength degradation and loss of energy dissipa-
tion ability, the lateral torsional buckling limit state is less desirable
than shear buckling.
Two specimens were designed to explore the intersection between
the two buckling modes. Specimen 2-6-1 had identical ring slenderness
parameters (R0/t = 23.6 and wc/t = 8.8) as Specimen 1-13-1 but also a
large panel slenderness, a/tw = 136 which was shown capable of devel-
oping shear buckling in specimen 3-6-1 in the previous section. The
shear force vs shear distortion behavior is shown in Fig. 15a to have a
peak shear force at 1.0% shear distortion and subsequent strength
degradation. The degradation in strength and energy dissipation is less
severe for this panel than Specimen 1-13-1. The results suggest that
the addition of shear buckling may be beneficial to a lateral torsional
buckling specimen as the tension field provides a mechanism for further
shear force resistance and energy dissipation.
Specimen 2-6-0.81 is identical to specimen 2-6-1 except that the
ring width is reduced from 56.1 mm to 45.7 mm. A comparison of
Fig. 15a and b shows that the narrower ring reduces the effects of lateral
torsional buckling because the disparity between the ring’s major and
(b) -6% Shear Distortion
 N. Egorova et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 103 (2014) 179–189 187

Fig. 13. Relationship between plate slenderness and the shear distortion angle at which
shear buckling occurs.
minor axis moments of inertia is smaller. As the ring cross section ratio,
wc/tw reduces, the lateral torsional buckling, strength degradation, and
loss of energy dissipation also reduces.
4.5. Discussion
Results for all specimens are summarized in Table 4. The shear
strength of one ring as calculated by Eq. (6) with measured yield
strength, Fy, and the inner radius, Ri, substituted for the centerline
radius, R, was multiplied by the number of rings in a row to get the com-
puted shear strength, Q2i. The measured shear yield strength, Vy, was
defined as the approximate load at which significant nonlinearity
began occurring. As described previously, the energy dissipation ratio
was computed for the 4% drift cycle as the ratio of the measured dissi-
pated hysteretic energy, Ed, to the hysteretic energy that would be
absorbed by an equivalent elastic perfectly plastic system with the
same peak shear strength, EEPP.
Specimens 2-13-1, 3-13-1, and 3-10-1 were determined to have
developed plastic hinging of the rings in a previous section. As such,
Eq. (6) would be expected to capture the shear yield strength of these
plate specimens. The results of Eq. (6) are reported as calculated using
the inner ring radius because calculated values using the centerline
radius were overly conservative. Table 4 shows that the larger comput-
ed shear strengths using inner ring radius are still only 80% of the
measured shear strength. The capacity equation is based on a plastic
mechanism of the ring undergoing idealized displacement, whereas
the actual displacement pattern is more complex and may include plas-
tic hinging of some of the links around the perimeter (see Fig. 10d).
More research is warranted to investigate the applicability of the
shear strength equation to full-scale RS-SPSW panels, but based on the
results tabulated in Table 4, the shear strength equation appears to
produce conservative values.
The progression of limit states for each specimen is also listed in
Table 4. Many of the RS-SPSW specimens subjected to cycles of shear
distortion up to and exceeding 8% experienced ductile tears in the
rings. The locations of the tears consistently occurred in the corner
rings at the first interior joint between ring and link as shown in
Fig. 16b. This location is subject to sharp creases in the plate during
load reversals as shown in Fig. 12b. Fig. 16a shows a fracture in the bot-
tom right ring of Specimen 2-6-1 in which a fracture initiated at the

, δactuator / a
(a) Hysteretic Behavior (b) Buckled Shape at 7% Shear Angle
Fig. 14. Behavior of panel undergoing lateral torsional buckling (Specimen 1-13-1). (a) Hysteretic behavior. (b) Buckled shape at 7% shear angle.

Table 4
Summary of specimen behavior.

Test # Specimen Computed shear strength, Measured shear strength, Peak force, Shear distortion Energy dissipation, Limit state progression
Q2i (kN) Vy (kN) Vu (kN) at peak force (%) Ed/EEPP (%)

1 2-13-1 286 350 378 3.1 79 PH, GSB at 4%

2 Solid plate Qsolid = 215 200 234 4.5 44 GSB at 0.1%, TFY, DF
3 1-13-1 286 N/A 271 † 46 LTB without PH
4 3-13-1 284 350 405 3.4 86 ‡ PH, GSB
5 2-6-0.81 78 90 105 9.0 64 Limited PH, GSB + LTB at 2%, DF
6 2-6-1 137 130 155 1.0 54 GSB + LTB at 1%, DF
7 3-6-1 136 130 171 1.3 64 PH, GSB at 2%, DF
8 3-10-1 190 250 302 2.1 71 PH, GSB at 3%, DF

PH = plastic hinging of ring, GSB = global shear buckling, TFY = yielding along the tension field diagonal, LTB = lateral torsional buckling, DF = ductile propagation of a fracture.
†Shear distortion measurement not available.
‡Energy dissipation reported for the 3% shear distortion cycle.
188 N. Egorova et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 103 (2014) 179–189

(a) Specimen 2-6-1 Wider Ring (b) Specimen 2-6-0.81 Narrower Ring
Fig. 15. Influence of ring width on buckling behavior. (a) Specimen 2-6-1 wider ring. (b) Specimen 2-6-0.81 narrower ring.

outside of the ring and propagated toward the inside of the ring. Fig. 16b
shows a similar fracture initiating at the top of Specimen 2-6-0.81.
The initiation occurred at shear distortion angles of 8% or more and
propagation occurred over several cycles. In RS-SPSW panels such as
those shown in Fig. 16 with nine rings, there is substantial built-in
redundancy. Even as the fractures initiated and propagated, the effect
on the global shear force vs shear distortion behavior was limited.
The energy dissipation ratio listed in Table 4 provides a good mea-
sure of how full the hysteretic shape was during the 4% shear distortion
cycle, and also eludes to the severity of the buckling at that point in the
test. The variation in energy dissipation ability of three RS-SPSW speci-
mens with varying plate slenderness ratios and small enough ring slen-
derness to prevent lateral torsional buckling is shown in Fig. 17a. As
discussed in previous sections, the rings underwent plastic hinging

Fracture Prone Locaons

(a) Specimen 2-6-1 at 10% (b) Typical Fracture Locations (c) Specimen 2-6-0.81 at 10%
Fig. 16. Fracture of RS-SPSW specimens at the corners of the panels. a) Specimen 2-6-1 at 10%. (b) Typical fracture locations. (c) Specimen 2-6-0.81 at 10%.

(a) Plate Slenderness (b) Ring slenderness

Fig. 17. Influence of geometric parameters on energy dissipation ratio. (a) Plate slenderness. (b) Ring slenderness.
 N. Egorova et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 103 (2014) 179–189
before undergoing shear buckling and the associated strength degrada-
tion and pinching of the hysteretic behavior.
The effect of lateral torsional buckling on the hysteretic shape
and energy dissipation capacity is more dramatic as shown in Fig. 17b.
These three specimens had identical plate slenderness, a/tw, so Fig. 17b
isolates the effect of lateral torsional buckling. The energy dissipation
ratio drops from values representing relatively full hysteretic behavior
to values similar to the thin solid plate specimen as the ring slenderness,
Ro/tw, is increased from 7.9 to 23.6. Because the degradation in strength
and energy dissipation is so severe for Specimen 1-13-1, it is desirable
to limit the ring slenderness below these values.
5. Conclusions
Conventional steel plate shear walls (SPSW) have small stiffness and
energy dissipation capacity as they act like tension-only bracing after
shear buckling occurs at small shear force.
A ring-shaped steel plate shear wall (RS-SPSW) is proposed that
limits out of plane buckling by the mechanics of how the circular ring
deforms into an ellipse. An experimental study was conducted on
eight approximately 1 m x 1 m shear panels to validate the RS-SPSW
and investigate the effect of the geometric parameters on cyclic shear
behavior.
A solid plate specimen was tested to give baseline performance of a
thin web plate representative of plates used on upper floors of an SPSW
building. Shear buckling occurred at a load that was approximately half
the shear capacity of the panel and a shear distortion angle of 0.1%. After
shear buckling, the hysteretic behavior became highly pinched and
there was near zero stiffness during load reversal.
In contrast, results from several RS-SPSW specimens were presented
demonstrating that they were capable of developing plastic hinging of
the rings and nearly full hysteretic behavior. Although shear buckling
of the RS-SPSW panels can occur after large inelastic shear distortion
angles, the shear distortion angle when shear buckling occurs was
found to be strongly correlated with plate slenderness defined as the
pin to pin dimension divided by the thickness of the plate. It was
found that specimens with plate slenderness less than 100 were able
to prevent shear buckling for shear distortion angles less than 2% and
the degradation in strength and energy dissipation capacity occurred
gradually afterwards.
Specimens experiencing lateral torsional buckling suffered more
severe degradation in strength and energy dissipation. Lateral torsional
buckling was found to be related to the ring slenderness defined by two
unitless parameters: 1) the outside ring radius divided by the plate
thickness, and 2) the ring width divided by the plate thickness. More
narrow rings resisted lateral torsional buckling more than wide rings
because the disparity between major and minor axis moments of inertia
was smaller. Values of outer ring radius divided by plate thickness be-
tween 8 and 16 were shown to resist lateral torsional buckling whereas
specimens with values equal to 24 experienced severe lateral torsional
buckling.
An equation for RS-SPSW shear strength was presented based on
plastic mechanism analysis and was shown to conservatively result in
values 80% of the measured shear yield strengths. Further modifications
of the strength equation based on a more realistic displacement field
189
and plastic hinging of some links may be warranted to improve accuracy.
Fracture of the RS-SPSW specimens occurred at large shear distortion
angles of 8% or more. Fracture is thus considered unlikely for panels
experiencing typical earthquake drifts. Detailed design procedures that
produce desirable hysteretic response while preventing undesirable
limit states are being developed as part of future research.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the American Institute of Steel Construc-
tion through the Milek Faculty Fellowship Program and Virginia Tech.
Thanks to Michael Wood, Adam Phillips, Stuart Salmon, and Chris Galitz
for their contribution to this work.
References
[1] Sabelli R, Bruneau M. Steel plate shear walls (AISC Design Guide 20). Chicago, Illinois:
American Institute of Steel Construction; 2006.
[2] Thorburn LJ, Kulak GL, Montgomery CJ. Analysis of steel plate shear walls. Structural
engineering report No. 107. Edmonton, Canada: Department of Civil Engineering,
University of Alberta; 1983.
[3] Berman JW, Bruneau M. Experimental investigation of light-gauge steel plate shear
walls. ASCE J Struct Eng 2005;131(2).
[4] AISC. Specification for structural steel buildings. ANSI/AISC 360-10. Chicago, Illinois:
American Institute for Steel Construction; 2010.
[5] Maurya A, Egorova N, Eatherton MR. Development of buckling resistant steel
plate shear walls. Proceedings of the 2013 ASCE Structures Congress, March 2-4,
2013 Pittsburgh, PA; 2013.
[6] Maurya A. Computational simulation and analytical development of buckling
resistant steel plate shear wall (BR-SPSW). [M.S. Thesis] Virginia Tech; 2012.
[7] Berman JW, Celik OC, Bruneau M. Comparing hysteretic behavior of light-gauge steel
plate shear walls and braced frames. Eng Struct 2005;27(3):475–85.
[8] Vian D, Bruneau M. Steel plate shear walls for seismic design and retrofit of building
structure. Technical Rep. No. MCEER-05–0010. Buffalo, N.Y: Multidisciplinary Center
for Earthquake Engineering Research; 2005.
[9] Tipping S, Stojadinovic B. Innovative corrugated steel shear walls for multi-story resi-
dential buildings. Proceedings of the 14th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering,
Beijing, China, October 12–17, 2008; 2008.
[10] Tyler RG. Preliminary tests on an energy absorbing element for braced structures
under earthquake loading. Preliminary tests on an energy absorbing element for
braced structures under earthquake loading, vol. 16, No. 3. Bulletin of the New
Zealand National Society for Earthquake Engineering; September 1983.
[11] Ciampi V, Arcangeli M, Perno S. Characterization of the low-cycle fatigue life of
a class of energy dissipating devices. Structural dynamics – Eurodyn '93; 1993.
p. 137–44.
[12] Bruneau M, Uang C-M, Sabelli R. Ductile design of steel structures. McGraw Hill;
2011.
[13] Phillips AR, Eatherton MR, Koutromanos I. Demonstrating the applicability of ring
shaped – steel plate shear walls for improved seismic performance. Proceedings of
the 2014 SEAOC Annual Convention, Indian Wells, CA, Sept 10 – 1; 2014.
[14] ATC-24. Guidelines for cyclic seismic testing of components of steel structures for
buildings. Report No. ATC-24. Redwood City, CA: Applied Technology Council; 1992.
[15] Eos Systems Inc. PhotoModeler documentation. Build 2011.1.0.542; 2011.
[16] Egorova N. Experimental study of ring-shaped steel plate shear walls. [M.S. Thesis]
Virginia Tech; 2013.
[17] Orsa RJ, Eatherton MR, Moen CD. Using close-range photogrammetry to characterize
initial imperfections of cold formed steel members. Report No. CE/VPI-ST-11/03.
Blacksburg, VA, USA: The Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering; 2011.
[18] ASTM Standard A370-07a. Standard test methods and definitions for mechanical
testing of steel products. West Conshohocken, PA: American Standards for Testing
and Materials International (ASTM); 2007.
[19] ASCE/SEI 7-10. Minimum design loads for buildings and other structures. Prepared
by the Structural Engineering Institute of ASCE. American Society of Civil Engineers
(ASCE); 2010.