Introducing a new shape of steel plate shear wall and comparing its seismic performance against usual types

Seismic performance is one of the most important factors in designing of structures. Lateral load bearing systems in structures are responsible to transfer lateral loads into the ground. Steel plate shear wall as a load bearing system in structures has some advantages such as easy and fast implementation, being economical, repairable, changeable and applicable on existing structures. Therefore, more research on these systems can help to design and retrofitting of existing structures. There are two general types of steel plate shear wall: stiffened and unstiffened. In this study, it is tried to determine the best geometrical shape of steel plate shear wall in terms of seismic performance. Material volume which are applied in all models are the same in order to compare their seismic performance in an equal circumstances and this is the innovative aspect of this study. Seven different stiffened and unstiffened steel plate shear walls are modeled using FEM in this paper. All models are analyzed with non-linear static analysis and linear incremental and cyclic loading. It is investigated that stiffened models had better performance in terms of seismic behavior in comparison with unstiffened models. These models also had more stiffness, more ductility and they absorb more plastic energy. Proposed models with new and innovative forms had better seismic performance, higher stiffness, higher strength, higher plastic energy absorption and higher ductility compare to usual stiffened models. In addition, these models had controlled out of plane displacement and better stress distribution.