Seismic behavior of Self-Buckling-Restrained Steel Plate Shear Wall made by two incline-slotted infill plates

This paper presented seismic behavior of a novel Self-Buckling-Restrained (SBR) Steel Plate Shear Wall (SPSW) that was made by two Incline-Slotted Infill Plates (ISIPs) which were tied together by one rubber plate. The directions of the incline slots on the two ISIPs were opposite. Stable cycling responses of the SBR-SPSW could be achieved since at least incline strips on one plate were in tension under the cycle load. At the same time, the strips in tension could provide lateral support to those in compression on the other plate. Behaviors of the SPSW with two ISIPs and with one Solid Infill Plate (SIP) were compared to show advantages of the proposed SBR-SPSW. The stress state changed from the tension-compression bi-direction stress state in a SIP to uniaxial tension or compression in an ISIP. The cracks that usually encountered in a solid steel infill plate under repeated shear buckling could be avoided. And the incline steel strips yielded sequentially that could provide energy dissipation capacity at small drift ratio. At the same time, the ISIP could always ensure the plate yield prior to the frame yield. Parameters of ISIP, including the infill plate thickness, the strips width and the slot width, were investigated through finite element analyses. Shear strengths of the SPSW with two ISIPs decreased with the increase in slot width and increased with the increase in strip width. Design recommendation for the SBR-SPSW was provided as results of theoretical and numerical analysis. The shear strength of the SBR-SPSW made by two ISIPs could be calculated by simplified theoretical equations on the safe side.