Framed Steel Plate Wall Behavior under Cyclic Lateral Loading

Abstract

An experimental study was performed to investigate the cyclic behavior of framed steel walls with thin infill plates. Five specimens with a single bay and three stories were tested. Test parameters for the specimens were the plate thickness and the strength and compactness of the column. The test results showed that unlike conventional reinforced concrete walls and braced frames, well-designed steel plate walls exhibited large ductility and energy dissipation capacity as well as high strength. The steel plate walls with relatively thin plates showed shear-dominated behavior by the moment–frame action. On the other hand, steel plate walls with thick plates showed flexure-dominated behavior by the cantilever action. The shear-dominated walls showed better ductility. To achieve large ductility, the boundary columns must resist the combined axial force and transverse force developed by the tension–field action of the infill plates. Also, the columns must have compact sections to prevent their early local buckling.