Experimental study on seismic behavior of high-strength concrete filled double-steel-plate composite walls

• A new detailed concrete filled double-steel-plate composite wall is conceived.
• Twelve specimens were tested under high axial compressive forces.
• Failure mechanism, hysteretic behavior, etc. are discussed in detail.
• Design recommendations are proposed.

In order to improve the ductility of the core wall in super high-rise buildings subjected to high axial compressive force and seismic effect, a new detailed concrete filled double-steel-plate (CFDSP) composite wall using high-strength concrete is proposed. This CFDSP composite wall is composed of concrete filled steel tubular columns at the two boundaries and concrete filled double-steel-plate wall body which is divided into several compartments by vertical stiffeners transversely connected by distributed batten plates. In order to intensively investigate the structural mechanism of this new type of CFDSP composite walls, twelve specimens are tested under large axial compressive force and reversed cyclic lateral load. No evident buckling of surface steel plates can be observed due to reasonable width-to-thickness ratios of steel plates and properly arranged batten plates, so that the surface steel plates and infill high-strength concrete can work compatibly in the whole loading process. All the specimens exhibited good energy dissipation ability and deformation capacity with full hysteretic curves and large ultimate drift ratios, thereby indicating that high-strength concrete can be used in seismic-resistant structures when the proposed new detailed walls are adopted. Based on the test results, the stiffness and strength degradations are analyzed, and the deformation characteristics of all the specimens are discussed in detail. Finally, a strength prediction approach based on the section analysis method is presented, and some detailing requirements for routine design practice are recommended.