Investigation of connection type effects of composite steel plate shear wall with a circular opening to boundary elements

Composite SPSW consisting of steel plates and reinforced concrete encasement on one or both sides of the steel plate has been developed as one method to tackle these problems. In this study the behavior of CSPSW is investigated by considering the type of wall connection to boundary elements under nonlinear static loading. Firstly the numerical model was validated with reference model and then parametric studies were performed by generalizing the numerical model. Two key parameters of the circular opening diameter and type of wall steel plate connection to the boundary elements were considered in the studies. Four diameters of 50, 100, 150 and 200 cm were used for circular openings. Three types of hinge, rigid and free joints were also used to connect the steel plate to the beam and column, simulating a total of 32 numerical models. The results of numerical models showed that rigid connection of composite shear wall to columns and beams was the best performance. Also, with the presence of 4 mm thick steel plate including opening with different diameters, two parameters of bearing capacity and elastic stiffness have been increased. When 46% of the steel plate surface is considered to be as opening, the bearing capacity and elastic stiffness rather than the frame alone increased by approximately 46% and 187%, respectively. By decreasing the percentage of the opening area from 46% to 3%, the bearing capacity increased by approximately 20% and the lateral elastic stiffness improved by approximately 135%.