A Survey on Parameters Affecting the Lateral Behavior of Composite Shear Walls

In this paper lateral behavior of composite shear walls is studied. The composite wall consists of a steel shear plate and a concrete cover connected together with a suitable mechanical means such as studs or bolts. The most important role for the steel plate of a composite shear wall is to increase stiffness and ductility while that of the concrete cover is to prevent buckling of the steel plate. The focal point in this study is to assess the variables affecting the lateral behavior of such walls, such as thickness of plate, thickness of concrete cover, spacing between the connectors and strength characteristics of concrete and steel. For modeling of the nonlinear behavior, material and geometric nonlinearities and large deformations are considered within the Abaqus software. According to the results of analysis, thickness of the steel plate proves to be the prime factor affecting lateral strength of the wall. On the other hand, lateral stiffness of the wall proves to be independent of the thickness of the concrete wall, spacing of the shear studs, and the compressive strength of the concrete cover. The study is distinguished from similar studies for the number of parameters studied and the extensive range of their values, detailed modeling of all components, and presenting the lateral behavior of the composite shear wall against the mentioned parameters.