Experimental investigation on stiffened steel plate shear walls with two rectangular openings

• Ultimate shear strength, shear stiffness and energy dissipation was equal in all of three specimens with the same effective width of infill steel plate and it was independent of the location of the two openings.
• Most of the energy dissipation occurred at middle and lateral panels that its magnitude depends on performance type, shear or flexural-dominant.
• Formation of plastic hinges in columns was begun in the exterior flange at the base. Distance between the openings and the columns did not have a significant effect on locations of plastic hinges.
• In the perforated specimens existence of openings will lead to reduce the initial stiffness and ultimate shear strength, compared to unperforated specimens.

One of the most important advantages of steel plate shear wall (SPSW) is to create openings with different sizes and arbitrary locations on the infill plate depending on their application. In this research, the effects of two openings on the structural behavior of SPSWs were studied experimentally. Experimental testing was performed on three one-third scaled single-story SPSW specimens with two rectangular openings under quasi-static cyclic loading. The differences between the three perforated experimental specimens were the interval between two openings and their closeness to the frame columns. The structural parameters of perforated specimens were compared to the similar specimen without any opening. The experimental results were utilized (a) to compare the ultimate shear strength, stiffness and energy absorption of specimens; (b) to evaluate the performance of central, lateral, top and bottom panels; (c) to investigate the effect of distance between the openings and the columns on the formation of plastic hinges on the column flanges; (d) to study the behavior of stiffeners around the openings. Test results showed that the ultimate shear strength, stiffness and energy absorption were the same in all three perforated specimens and the interval between the two openings had no effect on these values. Moreover, existence of openings will lead to reduction in values of structural parameters.