Behavior of multi-story code-designed steel plate shear wall structures regarding bay width

One of the design requirements in the AISC-341 for steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) is the limitation of infill panel width to height ratio. The code recommends the aspect ratio of panel to be between 0.8 and 2.5. In this paper, SPSW frames with 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 and 19 story levels are considered with three different panel aspect ratios of 0.83, 1.67 and 2.5; while all models have similar overall plan dimensions. This comparative study is to provide practicing engineers tools to make reasonable decisions on the suitable design bay width for SPSW structures. Results show that the selection of a suitable bay width produces a considerable reduction of VBE sections, especially in high-rise SPSWs. Consequently, the weight of structures becomes minimal; while the capacity of structural members is utilized more efficiently and the SPSWs are provided with less overstrength. The maximum increase in the stiffness and load capacity of moment frames due to the employment of infill plates is obtained in the suitable design bay width. The variation of bay width highly affects the deformation mode and the behavior of high-rise SPSW frames. It is also found that HBEs yielding has an important effect on the axial force demands in VBEs, especially in SPSWs with large bay widths.