Case Studies in Construction Materials 9 (2018) e00180

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Case Studies in Construction Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cscm

Examining the impact of sheet placement and changes in

waves characteristics on behavior of wavy steel shear wall
Hamid Reza Ashrafia , Peyman Beiranvanda,* , Majid Pouraminianb ,
Marziye Sadat Moayeric
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Ramsar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ramsar, Iran
c
Department of Civil Engineering, Borujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history:
Received 4 June 2017 Steel shear walls are usually constructed in two forms, solid and non-solid. Generally, the
Received in revised form 9 May 2018 solid ones function better in terms of seismic performance and exploitation; however, their
Accepted 14 June 2018 construction is costly and time-consuming due to the use of various solidifiers and much
executive details. Wavy steel shear walls have been proposed as a substitute to solid shear
Keywords: walls. High arch resistance as well as an operation similar to stiffed shear walls are expected
Steel shear wall due to inter-sheet stiffness. This study tries to evaluate steel sheet placement and the
Wavy sheet impact of geometrical parameters including wavelength and wave depth in steel shear wall
Shear capacity
on final shear capacity. For this purpose, ABAQUS finite element software was used. Finally,
Amplitude of wave
it was observed that steel shear wall capacity increased if waves were aligned with beams.
Length step of wave
Finite element Also, resistance of steel shear wall increased as wave length decreased and wave depth
increased.
© 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

Steel structures have been used widely in building constructions, especially in areas with high seismic hazard, due to their
high strength and ductility. Lateral load-resisting systems in steel buildings are usually designed as the moment resisting
frames or braced frames. Each system has its own advantages and disadvantages. For instance, ductility is higher in moment
frames as compared with braced frames while stiffness is usually higher in braced frames than in moment frames; however,
construction costs are higher for braced frames. Steel shear wall is another option as a lateral resisting system. It is
appropriate either for a new structure or as a means to retrofit an existing building. This system consists of steel plates, one
story high and one bay wide connected to the adjacent beams and columns by weld, bolt or both. The plates are installed in
one or more bays for the full height of the building. The surrounding steel frame can be applied with either simple or
moment-resisting beam-to-column connections. A properly designed steel shear wall has very ductile behavior and
relatively large energy dissipation capacity. Furthermore, steel shear wall as an efficient and economical lateral load resisting

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: peyman51471366@gmail.com (P. Beiranvand).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2018.e00180
2214-5095/© 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/
4.0/).
2 H.R. Ashrafi et al. / Case Studies in Construction Materials 9 (2018) e00180

option has high initial stiffness and is highly effective in limiting the lateral drift of structures. When moment-resisting
beam-to-column connections are present in this system, it has inherent redundancy and significant energy dissipation [1].
Numerous researches have been conducted on steel shear wall. The experimental studies on the thin steel shear walls
have been performed under cyclic loading [1–3]. Moreover, the analytical studies on the shear buckling characteristics and
behavior of the multi-story thin steel shear wall have also been conducted [4–11]. Shear buckling behavior of the steel plate is
the main concern of the thin steel plate shear wall. The buckling behavior of the shear panel can transform from global to
local or interactive buckling by adding stiffeners. Therefore, the steel shear wall is applied in two types, stiffened and
unstiffened. The stiffened type has higher stiffness and strength. Furthermore, stiffening the panel can heavily increase the
amount of energy dissipated under cyclic loading [12]. However, in the stiffened system, the construction cost is
considerably higher. The most important reason for higher construction cost is due to its time-consuming factor and the high
cost of thin plates welding. To design the stiffened and unstiffened steel shear walls, two methods are employed: strip model
and Plate Frame Interaction (PFI). Post-buckling strength of the panel has been considered in both models [8,13]. Since
construction cost of stiffened panels is immensely high, corrugated shear panel is proposed as an innovative lateral resisting
system in this research.
Steel shear walls (SSW) have received attention in the last 3 decades for capturing wind and earthquake lateral forces in
buildings especially high buildings [14]. One way to make walls more resistant is to improve their buckling behavior using
stiffeners [15]. By preventing steel sheet buckling before yielding, Stiffeners improve their behavior and increase stiffness,
resistance, formation and energy absorption as well [16,17]. However, due to various stiffeners and numerous details a lot of
time and cost should be spent on their construction [18]. One of the methods to reduce these costs without reducing steel
shear wall loading capacity is to use wavy sheet instead of flat sheet. The idea of using wavy sheet instead of shear wall is
derived from beams with wavy nature. Some of the most important researches conducted in this area include: by examining
trapezoid form beams, Elgaly et al. [19] concluded that beams with more wave angle and thicker flange indicated more final
resistance in yielding and shear. By examining beams with sinus wave, Jong and Lee [20] concluded that sinus wave increases
1.5 to 2 times the beam buckling resistance. By studying beams with trapezoid form, Elgaly and Hamilton [21] observed that
as waveform gets denser, buckling occurs generally in the form but in more open waves, the buckling occurs locally in the
wave plain surfaces.
Mofid and Vafaei [22] compared shear wall with trapezoid sheet and non-stiffed shear wall. Results indicate that
formation, initial stiffness and the shear wall energy absorption is higher in trapezoid sheet than non-stiffed shear wall. To
examine the walls’ seismic behavior, Mir Qaderi and Torabian [23] applied ANSYS and wall 3D modeling with 8-node shell
element and analyzed material and geometrical nonlinear post-buckling behavior and presented different results based on
different parameters such as wave angle, sheet panel height to wide ratio, and the sheet height to thickness.

2. Modeling and accuracy

To evaluate accuracy, the results of ABAQUS numerical modeling have been compared to the experimental results of the
reference [5]. The experimental model is a steel shear wall with trapezoid wavy sheet. Fig. 1 illustrates the experimental
model and Fig. 2 shows the sample modeled by the software. In Fig. 3 experimental and numerical results have been
compared. As it is observed, results are consistent. Nuances are resulted by stiffness reduction in the model due to failure in
sheet attachment to boundary elements not considered in modeling (Table 1).

2.1. Stiffness relations of sinus wavy sheet

Geometric properties of sinusoidal corrugated plate are presented in Fig. 4. The design relations of steel sinus wavy sheet
have been presented in Sections 1–5, Eurocode 3. Sheet stiffness is introduced in direction to X (Dx) and Z (Dz) following
relations: 1, 2 where t is sheet thickness, l is wave step length and a is wave amplitude. Mainly, the infill plates provide and
control the shear capacity of frame by their buckling or through failure. Pure shear stress is the only significant stress in these
structural members. In corrugated plates, yield shear stress can be determined through:
F
t y ¼ pyffiffiffi ð1Þ
3
Where F y signifies the yielding strength of steel.
There are two types of buckling control of the corrugated plates: overall buckling and local buckling. In these conditions,
the local buckling studied in isotropic plates and elastic critical shear stress for the local buckling mode is defined by (2) in
sinusoidal plates.

p2 E 2tw
t cr;l ¼ ks ð2Þ
12ð1  n2 Þ s
Where tw is the corrugated plates’ thickness, s signifies the actual length of corrugate in plate with sinusoidal corrugated
plate, E represents modulus of elasticity, n stands for Poisson ratio of steel, and ks is shear buckling coefficient in the local
 H.R. Ashrafi et al. / Case Studies in Construction Materials 9 (2018) e00180 3

Fig. 1. Details of steel shear walls with trapezoidal sheet.

Fig. 2. The mesh configuration of corrugated steel shear wall with sinusoidal waves.

Fig. 3. Comparison of the results of numerical modeling with laboratory samples.

4 H.R. Ashrafi et al. / Case Studies in Construction Materials 9 (2018) e00180

Table 1
Details of the materials used in experimental modeling.

Section Modulus of elastic (Gpa) Yield stress (Mpa) The ultimate stress (Mpa)
Steel sheet 21010 207 290
Beam 210 300 443
Column 210 228 456

Fig. 4. Geometric properties of sinusoidal corrugated plate.

buckling mode.

Et3 1
Dx ¼ ð3Þ
12ð1  n2 Þ s

p2 a 2
S ¼ lð1 þ 2
Þ ð4Þ
16l

EIz
Dz ¼ ð5Þ
l

" #
a2 t 0:81
Iz ¼ 1  a 2 ð6Þ
8 1 þ 2:5 4l

Where: t is steel sheet thickness, l is length step of wave and a is wave amplitude.
The above equations were used in plate girder with sinusoidal waves. This paper makes a comparison between the
sinusoidal plates using Finite element method.

2.2. The characteristics of simulated models

Examined models include one-floor walls with an opening of 3 m width and height. Boundary members have been
constructed of cross section IPB 180. Infill steel sheets are sinus wavy sheets with wave length (a) and depth (h) with a
thickness of 5 m attached to boundary members as cross. The element used for modeling is ABAQUS S4R software. Steel sheet
materials and boundary members have been represented in Table 2. Fig. 4 illustrates sample steel shear wall modeled in
software.

2.2.1. Elements
Shell element (ABAQUS element S4R) was used for all structural sub-assemblages. S4R is a 4-node, quadrilateral shell
element with reduced integration and large-strain formulation.
 H.R. Ashrafi et al. / Case Studies in Construction Materials 9 (2018) e00180 5

Table 2
Details of the materials used in numerical modeling.

Section Modulus elastic (Gpa) Yield stress (Mpa) The ultimate stress (Mpa)
Steel sheet 210 240 360
Beam 210 240 360
Column 210 240 360

Fig. 5. Shear steel wall (SSW-V).

2.2.2. Boundary conditions

The boundary frame was fixed at column bases. Boundary conditions preventing out-of-plane displacements were used
along the middle. Gravity loads were applied at the top of the columns prior to in-plane loading. Lateral in-plane
displacements were applied at the floor levels in proportion to the same ratio used in the test.

2.2.3. Material properties

Nominal stress-strain curves for all steel structural sub-assemblages were obtained from coupon test. Steel was modeled
as an isotropic material with a simple rate-independent constitutive behavior. Von-Misses yield surface was selected as the
yield criterion.
Fig. 4 shows a sample of steel shear walls modeled in the software.

3. Results

3.1. The effect of directing waves on the behavior of steel shear wall

To examine the effect of wave’s direction on the behavior of steel shear wall, two states were examined:

A.) A.) V-SSW: directing waves towards beams (Fig. 5)

B.) H-SSW: directing waves towards columns (Fig. 6)

In both samples wave amplitude is 4 cm, a wave step length (l) is 20 cm and thickness is 5 mm. As observed in Fig. 7 the
sample capacity of V-SSW is 9% higher than in H-SSW. This can be justified by higher sheet firmness in model V-SSW around
its arch as compared with that of model H-SSW.
Similarly, by examining the sheet arch and out-of-sheet form changes, it is observed that diametrical tensile field in the
sample wavy sheets of H-SSW is formed by the sheet’s upper and lower edges horizontally. As tension increases, tensile fields
continue in diametrical direction.
As observed in Fig. 8, deforming out of steel shear wall screen in model V-SSW is 3.5 cm as compared to H-SSW model.
This deforming rate is 90% lower. This shows that if waves locate vertically, out of screen deforming reduces while resistance
increases.

3.2. The effect of wave’s amplitude on the behavior of steel shear wall with wavy sheet

To examine the effect of wave amplitude on the behavior of steel shear wall, assuming wave step length as constant,
the wave amplitude is changed. In Table 3 the considered models have been introduced. As observed, as amplitude of
6 H.R. Ashrafi et al. / Case Studies in Construction Materials 9 (2018) e00180

Fig. 6. Shear steel wall (SSW-H).

Fig. 7. The effects of the waves on the capacity of steel shear walls.

wave increases due to an increase in wavy sheet hardness, steel shear wall capacity increases as well. In other words, in
a shear wall as (al) ratio increases capacity and ductility increase as well. In Fig. 9, the results of numerical modeling are
compared.
In Table 4 outside deformations have been compared. Table 4 indicates that as wave amplitude increases the out of screen
deformations decrease. As out of screen deformations decrease, post-arch resistance and wall capacity increase which can be
observed in Fig. 9.

3.3. The effect of wave length on the behavior of steel shear wall with wavy sheet

To examine the effect of a wave step length on steel shear wall behavior, assuming wave amplitude as constant, the wave
length is changed. In Table 5 the considered models have been introduced. According to 4 and 3 as the wave step length (l)
reduces, the sheet firmness increases and this enhances steel shear wall capacity. In other words, in a shear wall, as (al) atio
increases, capacity and formation increase as well, representing the effect of wave density on steel shear wall capacity. So the
denser the steel sheet waves, the higher its capacity and formation. In Table 6 out of screen deformations have been shown.
As observed in Table 6, as the wave step length increases out of screen deformations increase as well but these deformations
are less than wave amplitude change, representing the importance of wave amplitude changes over wave length changes.
Therefore, in steel shear wall with wavy sheet, waves should be parallel to beams and waves with high amplitude and short
wave step should be used as possible (Fig. 10).
 H.R. Ashrafi et al. / Case Studies in Construction Materials 9 (2018) e00180 7

Fig. 8. The distribution of diagonal tension field outside sheet.

Table 3
Details of the models for reviewing the effect of wave amplitude on the behavior of steel shear wall (dimension is mm).

Model Lenght of step a wave Amplitude of wave Thick steel sheets

SSW-1200a20 200 20 5
SSW-1200a30 200 30 5
SSW-1200a40 200 40 5
SSW-1200a50 200 50 5

Fig. 9. The effect of changing wave amplitude on the capacity of steel shear wall.

3.4. The thickness effect of the corrugated plate

The thicknesses considered for studying the effect of thickness on sinusoidal corrugated plate are 1.5, 3, 5, 10, 15, and
20 mm. In these models, the columns and beam are considered IPB180 respectively (Figs. 11 and 12).

3.5. The stiffness effect of the boundary members

To study the boundary members such as beam and column in corrugated steel shear wall, the six different sections of IPB
for column are used in sinusoidal corrugated plate, where the length of wave is 60 mm, the height of wave is 19 mm, and
8 H.R. Ashrafi et al. / Case Studies in Construction Materials 9 (2018) e00180

Table 4
The comparison of out of sheet deformation with changes in wave amplitude.

Model SSW-l200a20 SSW-l200a30 SSW-l200a40 SSW-l200a50

Deformation out of sheet 3.5 2.2 1.85 1.35

Table 5
Details of the models for reviewing the effects of a wave step length on the behavior of steel shear wall (dimensions in mm).

Model Length of step a wave Amplitude of wave Thick steel sheet

SSW-1100a20 100 40 5
SSW-1200a30 200 40 5
SSW-1300a40 300 40 5
SSW-1400a50 400 40 5

Table 6
The comparison of out of sheet deformation with changes in wave length step.

Model SSW-l100a40 SSW-l200a40 SSW-l300a40 SSW-l400a40

out of sheet deformation 1.45 1.85 2.10 2.60

Fig. 10. The effect of wave length step on the capacity of steel shear wall.

Fig. 11. Load-displacement curves of sinusoidal corrugated plate with different thicknesses.
 H.R. Ashrafi et al. / Case Studies in Construction Materials 9 (2018) e00180 9

Fig. 12. Performance of stiffness in sinusoidal corrugated plate with different thicknesses.

Fig. 13. Performance of load and stiffness of sinusoidal corrugated plates with different columns.

thickness of plate is 3 mm. The columns studied in this section consist of IPB200, 220, 240, 260, and 300, and unique section
of IPB180 for beams are used in these six models. In these models, with an increase in the section area of column, the ultimate
bearing increases due to an increase in stiffness (see Fig. 13). However, energy dissipation does not have any determine
process. As mentioned earlier, as column section area increases, the stiffness of system increases about 3–15.6%.

4. Findings

This study examines steel shear wall with wavy sheet and the effect of wave's directions, wave's amplitude and wave’s
step length on the behavior of structures. It concluded:
If the steel sheet is placed onto steel shear wall vertically, steel shear wall capacity and formation will be higher than that
of horizontal placement.
Assuming the wave’s step length as constant and wave’s amplitude increasing, steel shear wall capacity and formation
will increase due to an increase in steel sheet firmness.
Assuming wave’s amplitude as constant and waves step length increasing, steel sheet firmness increases that will in turn
increase capacity and formation.
As wave amplitude increases and wave step decreases, the out of screen deformation representing severity of damage on
the wall reduces and resistance increases.
As (al) ratio increases, capacity, formation and out of screen deformations increase as well, representing the effect of
waves’ density on increasing steel shear wall capacity.
As the thickness of corrugated plate in steel shear walls increase, the ultimate bearing and ductility increase significantly.
The obtained results, namely, sinusoidal corrugated plates with similar corrugation depth, showed that an increase in the
thickness in sinusoidal plates caused an increase in stiffness and ultimate bearing.
10 H.R. Ashrafi et al. / Case Studies in Construction Materials 9 (2018) e00180

Increasing the stiffness of boundary members (i.e., columns) caused the ultimate bearing and ductility to enhance from 3
to 15%; however, the steel wall as a whole did not change significantly.

Conflict of interest

There is not conflict of interest.

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