Investigation on Effect of Columns Stiffness on the Behavior of Thin Steel Shear Walls

Steel shear walls that are used in two (thin and stiffened) forms, are innovative systems for resistance against wind and earthquake lateral loads. The thin type of steel shear wall has recently attracted the researcher’s interests. A major problem in the design of steel shear wall is the design of its supporting columns. This paper presents the laboratory test results on the investigations on the effect of stiffness of columns on the behavior and performance of thin steel shear wall. Accordingly four two-story one-bay half scale test samples of steel shear walls in which they differed only in the column properties, were tested under cyclic loading. Test results show that although the load carrying capacity, deformability and stiffness of the steel shear wall, increase due to increase in columns stiffness but these properties are not proportional to the stiffness of supporting columns. It was also observed that the steel shear walls are very much ductile/deformable and have high energy absorbing capacities.